Chaos amongst them
by Bambers Gray
Summary: Survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one and it could cost someone their life
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Paradise

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the charters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun. _

**A/N: **_This is something that has been stuck in my head since forever and I finally decided to type it up. Let me know what you think and if I should continue. Also, only certain chapters will be song fics depending on wither I feel that the song will help out with getting the point and their feelings across without having to write six pages on how one of them is feeling. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the first of many chapters._

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_**Chapter one: Welcome to Paradise.** _

_' **Song: Paradise by Vanessa Carlton'**_

Daley sighed in frustration as she tossed the remaining contents of one of the surviving bins on the sand. The family portrait that was taken only a few weeks before they crash landed on this seemingly deserted island had come up missing. She wasn't sure if she had lost it or if one of the others took it as some sick joke but she had already retraced her steps from the last few days three times and found nothing. She asked Lex if he had taken it and he seemed just as upset as she was. It was the only thing she had left that reminded her of home. The memories she had seemed more and more vague as time went on. Between searching for fire wood, food, and getting water it didn't leave much time to think about anything other than what they needed to do to survive.

It seemed like decades ago that their plane had crashed when it had only been four weeks and now the only tie she had to her old life was missing. Her eyes burned as tears formed behind her eyes threaten to fall. She took a deep breath to calm her self down but even someone as determined and level headed as her couldn't keep her self together at a time like this. A few tears escaped and rolled gently down her cheeks dripping off her chin. She sniffled and quickly whipped them away but more just followed. Within a minute she was sobbing uncontrollably. She fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands. She never thought that anyone would see her.

Everyone was too engulfed in their own worlds to notice that she wasn't around and even if they wasn't all of them…well all of them but Eric and Taylor were all hard at work in other parts of the island. Her vision quickly became blurry, and her eyes quickly turned red. She coughed as she struggled to catch her breath. She felt like her world was collapsing around her and she was being buried beneath the rubble. How can one person feel so alone? She thought as her body began to tremble. She tried to stop the tears from falling numerous times but it was a useless attempt. She had already lost control and they weren't going to stop until she had no more tears left to cry.

_Once upon a year gone by_

_She saw herself give in_

_Every time she closed her eyes_

_She saw what could have been_

_Well nothing hurts and nothing bleeds_

_When covers tucked in tight_

_Funny when the bottom drops_

_How she for gets to fight…to fight_

_And it's one more day in paradise_

_One more day in paradise_

Taylor sighed as she stared out into the empty ocean. Was this all they had to look forward to for the rest of their lives? A endless ocean, fruit, coconuts, and fish. She never thought about the possibility of them not being rescued before but now the thought was haunting her. Every time she was alone the thought slowly crept into her mind and lingered around for hours before someone came to rescue her from her own thoughts. Just the thought of living out her life on the island formed knots in her stomach. She looked over at the beach towel sitting beside her. All the extra batteries they had that weren't being used or weren't already charged were lined up along the towel with the solar battery charger safely placed in the middle.

She still had another hour or so before the last battery would be charged so she decided to take the ones that were charged back to camp and see if there was anything that she could do to take her mind off the lingering thoughts that rushed through her mind. She stood up and gathered up all of the batteries in her arms and walked up towards the tent. She seen Daley knelt down beside one of the bins that survived through the storm with her face buried in her hands. She didn't notice her body trembling or her sobbing unless she was a few feet from her. Taylor frowned and walked over to the bin, obviously Daley didn't hear her walk up because she was still sobbing and she hadn't bothered to look up. Taylor looked at the pile of things that were supposed to be in the empty bin piled up beside it. Taylor narrowed her eyes and knelt down in front of Daley. She put the batteries in the bin then looked back at Daley.

She was glaring at her like she had just stolen her puppy. "What are you looking at?" Daley snapped at her.

"Ummm…I was just…" Before Taylor could think of something to say Daley interrupted.

"You know what!" She yelled standing up knocking Taylor backwards. "I'm sick and tired of you doing nothing to help us! You act like charging batteries is so hard that you can't bare to do anything else! You are so lazy and the only person you care about is you! Were all on the edge of disaster and you are doing nothing! One day one of use is going to die because of the lack of help from you and it's not going to be anyone else fault but yours!"

By the time Daley stopped yelling her face was as red as her hair and she was gasping for air. Her throat felt like it was on fire and her head was throbbing. Taylor just stared at her stunned by her sudden out burst. Daley felt bad after she said it but the way she seen it it was the truth. Taylor and Eric both needed a wake up call before one of them did end up dieing. She turned and stomped off into the forest leaving Taylor speechless. Tears began to stream down Taylor's face. Was it true? Was she really going to responsible for one of their deaths? She had helped out a lot here recently, she helped gather fire wood, food, and even lug water from the well but no one seemed to notice that she wasn't the same naïve, self centered, lazy girl that landed on the island.

She had her wake up call and she answered it or at least she thought she had. She stood up from the ground and brushed the sand from her hands as the stream of tears became a water fall. She looked around to see if anyone else was around and she seen Jackson standing in the clearing, coming up from the beach. He looked at her sympathetically, one of the very few times he showed any emotion at all. He must have heard everything. She thought before storming off towards the beach. She didn't want him to see her break down. He grabbed her arm to stop her but she jerked away from his grip and without looking at him she ran off down the beach. She ran as fast and as fast as she could away from camp, and away from everyone there.

She was gasping for air and her chest felt like it was being ripped open but she continued running. She tripped over a root and fell on her hands and knees. She sobbed for a moment before she repositioned her self to where she was sitting with her knees hugged close to her chest. She couldn't get Daley's harsh words out of her head no matter how hard she tried to stop them they replayed over and over in her head.

_As darkness quickly steals the light_

_That shined within her eyes_

_She slowly swallows all her fear_

_And sooths her mind with lies_

_Well all she wants and all she needs_

_Are reasons to survive_

_A day in which the sun will take_

_Her artificial light…her light_

_And it's one more day in paradise_

_One more day in paradise_

_Its one more day in paradise_

_One last chance to feel alright…alright_

Melissa watched the trees sway in the gentle warm breeze. She was sitting on a fallen tree near the same cliff she and Taylor had fell off of a week or two before. She couldn't get over the beauty of the place even though she came close to dieing that day she couldn't stop her self from wondering back there just to take in the scenery. She stayed a good ten feet from where she had slipped and made sure that she never went anywhere near the ledge. She admired the beautiful mountains and water falls that she could see from there and unlike any place else on the island she could be completely alone to think about everything without being bothered. She had even gone up there a few times just to cry.

She felt like the world was sitting on her shoulders. They were having more and more problems finding fruit and Jackson never caught enough fish to feed them alone and there were times where he didn't catch anything at all. Lex's garden had began blooming some but it would still be a long time before they would be able to eat anything out of it. What were they going to do when they couldn't find anymore fruit? They had enough stocked up to last them a few days and there was always more fruit trees farther away from camp but it wasn't like the trees there had an infinite amount of fruit growing on them. They would run out soon if they were rescued. Then what would they do, slowly starve to death one by one.

She couldn't get the image of all of them standing around a mound of dirt crying only one of them wasn't there. Just the thought of any of them dieing made her sick to her stomach and formed tears in her eyes. They had become a family, a dysfunctional family but a family none the less. She couldn't stand the thought that one day they would loose one of their own. Captain Russell and the others hadn't come back yet and they hadn't seen any sign of Abby since she left to look for them. They could be out there somewhere hurt, or starving, or dehydrated or maybe even…No Melissa you can't think about that, their fine they have each other just like all of us have one another. She thought looking down at her hands. A couple tears fell down her cheeks and dripped on to her hands. She brushed them off her cheeks and stood up, determined to stay strong. She took a deep breath and one last look at the beautiful scenery there before she turned to walk back to camp. A few more tear began to fall down her cheeks and she sniffled and brushed them away once again as she made her way through the thick and humid forest.

_Don't pretend to hold it in just let it out._

_Don't pretend to hold it in just push it out._

_Don't you try to hold it in just let it out and_

_Don't you try to hold it in…you hold it in_

_One more day in paradise_

_One more day in paradise_

_Its one more day in paradise_

_One last chance to feel alright_

The sun slowly began to sink towards the horizon and the sky slowly became darker as the day went on. The sound of the waves crashing against the sand grew louder and louder as the birds singing grew dimmer and dimmer as night began to overcome the island. The sky was beautifully colored with layers of light blues, purples, and pinks and the sun was a bright orange slowly dimming as well as the hours passed. The camp site was quiet and empty. Everyone was rushing around doing some last minute chores or off on their own crying as their thoughts consumed them. Crickets began chiming in one by one slowly chirping. It almost sounded as if they were playing the heart beat of the sun as it slowly began sinking further and further below the horizon their chirps became faster and louder as more chimed in to sing the same song.

_Once upon a year gone by_

_She saw herself give in_

_Every time she closed her eyes_

_She saw what could have been_

**_End of Chapter One_**


	2. Chapter 2: Lost souls

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the characters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun. _

**A/N:**_This chapter explains what the boys were doing during chapter one and their POV on everything going on. I wanted to have two separate chapters, one for the boys and one for the girls for the first two chapters. The rest of the chapters will continue normally with all of them in it.

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**Chapter two: Lost souls**

'**Song: Colors by Crossfade'**

Eric looked around to be sure no one was watching before he sat the two empty jugs down by the well and walked into the thick forest. He only walked a couple of minutes before he was sure he was out of sight from the others. He sat down on the ground and leaned up against a tree. He covered his eyes with his straw hat and slowly began to doze in and out of sleep. When he opened his eyes again and moved the hat from over his eyes he noticed that the sun had changed position by a good amount which meant a couple hours had passed since he laid down. His eye widened as he shot up and ran back to the well. He had to be sure to keep Daley and Nathan off his back. He couldn't handle anymore of their _'we're all alone speeches.' _He quickly filled both the jugs half way up before he picked them up and headed back to camp.

He couldn't believe he let his self fall asleep completely….well he could but he knew he would hear about it for the next two weeks. He suddenly stopped when he heard yelling coming from the same direction as camp. He narrowed his eyes and put the jugs of water down before sneaking into the forest to get a closer look. When he got close enough to camp he saw Daley standing over Taylor yelling ruthlessly at her about not working. Eric could hear most of what she was saying. Taylor looked stunned and even hurt.

"…one of us is going to die because of the lack of help from you and it's not going to be anyone else's fault but yours!"

Eric's mouth dropped as the words poured from Daley's mouth. He'd never seen or heard Daley ever be that ruthless towards anyone ever. Even when he was caught sleeping a dozen times in one day. He seen Daley stomp off and he dunked down so he wouldn't be seen. Once she was gone he stood back up but by the time he did Taylor was already gone. What was wrong with her? No one should ever say that to anyone especially when they are already fighting to survive. He felt bad for Taylor, he actually felt bad for another human-being. Yeah he had a crush on he since…well forever but still he would fell bad even if it was Nathan. It wasn't long before he seen Jackson storming off in the same direction that Daley had. Eric dropped down to the ground and leaned up against a tree. _I wonder if he seen it too…_ Eric thought.

_Can you feel it crush you? Does it seem to bring the worst in you out?  
There's no running away from these things that hold you down  
Do they complicate you because they make you feel like this?  
Of all the colors that you've shined this is surely not your best _

But you should know these colors that you're shining are... 

Jackson laid on the sand with the fishing pole stuck in the ground beside him. The shade from the trees kept him from getting to hot or even worse sun burned. He must've been there for a few hours and he still hadn't caught anything. He sat up and sighed and lifted the line from the water. Nothing, the leach he'd been using for bait was still on the hook. He sighed out of frustration before he tossed the line beside the pole and stood up. He walked back towards camp with the empty bottle of water in his hand. When he got with in hearing distance he could hear someone yelling. It wasn't a hurt, or in trouble yell, it was something else, something that didn't sound good. He walked faster towards camp by the time he could see what was going on he heard the words slip out of Daley's mouth. He froze in shock and stared at them.

He couldn't believe what he heard. _What the hell is she thinking? _Jackson thought as he walked towards them but by that time Daley was already rushing off towards the forest. He stopped and looked at Taylor. She looked scared, hurt and worst of all crushed. Like the entire world had collapsed around her. She stood up and rushed towards him when she began to pass him he reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her but she just jerked away and ran off down the beach. Jackson wanted to run after her but he knew it wouldn't do any good. He glared in the direction Daley disappeared and rushed after her. He hated getting in the middle of things like this but he couldn't let her talk to anyone like she just did, no matter how upset she was.

When he finally caught up with her he grabbed her arm to stop her from going any further. She turned around to see who it was and glared at him through her tear filled eyes. She tried to jerk her arm away but Jackson's grip was firm.

"What?!" She snapped at him.

"What the hell are you thinking Daley? You can't yell at someone like that no matter how mad you are at them or how upset you are!" Jackson tried to control his anger but he couldn't

"She deserved it! She's going to get one of us killed. Now let me go!" She said jerking her arm once again.

"No! You can't tell someone their going to be responsible for someone else's death! You had no right flipping out on her like that!" Jackson said angrily.

"Let go! You're hurting me!" Daley yelled as she collapsed to her knees finally freeing her self from Jackson's grip.

She sobbed uncontrollably finally losing the last ounce of control she had left. Jackson knelt down beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. The moment he did she jerked away and glared at him.

"Go away!" She screamed as loud as her throat would allow.

"I understand you're upset, I really do but you had no right yelling at Taylor like you did. She has been working as much as the rest of us; she's even offered to help." Jackson said slightly more calmly.

"Leave me alone!" She screamed just as loud as before.

Jackson could hear her voice crack. She buried her face in her hands and leaned forward to where her hands were touching the ground. Jackson nodded to his self before standing up and walking back to camp to look for Taylor.

_Surely not the best colors that you shine_

_Surely not the best colors that you shine _

I know you feel alone, yeah, and no one else can figure you out  
But don't you ever turn away from the ones that help you down?  
Well they'd love to save you. Don't you know they love to see you smile?  
But these colors that you've shined are surely not your style 

Nathan walked through the forest gathering fruit off the ground and from the trees that were low enough for him to pick. It'd been a long couple of days, longer than most that they spent on the island. Everyone seemed to be acting different, he wasn't sure what it was but something was defiantly different around there. He heard something just ahead of him but the forest was too thick to see what it was. He froze for the longest time waiting for what ever if was to come into his view. He sighed with relief when he seen Melissa walking out of the thicker part of the forest. But the relief was short lived when she seen that something was wrong. He narrowed his eyes and rushed over towards her. She had tears in her eyes and they were red. It was obvious she'd been crying for quite some time.

When she seen him she tired to walk faster hoping to escape the twenty questions that she was about to be flooded with but Nathan caught up with her before she could disappear into the forest.

"Hey Mel, what's wrong?" Nathan said his voice flooded with concern.

"Nothing, it's just my allergies. What's up?" She said continuing to walk towards the beach.

"You've never had a problem with allergies before." Nathan said staring at her. Obviously not believing a word she said

"Yeah well I've never been stranded on an island before either." She looked up at him for the first time since they began talking.

The image that had been stuck in her head for days now flashed in her head but this time they were all standing around Nathan crying. She quickly looked away and more tears began to fall. Nathan had been her best friend since they were kids she couldn't stand the thought of anything happening to him. She tried to look back up at him but the same image flashed in her head. She winced and looked away again.

"I gotta go!" She said before running off into the thick and muggy forest.

It didn't take long for Nathan to lose her. "Mel!" He yelled but there was no response.

He walked quickly heading back to the beach, hoping that's where she was headed. It didn't take much to get lost on this island and he knew from experience it was easy to get hurt out there. He sighed worriedly and took a quick glance around him before he headed in the same direction Mel ran. He knew it was possible that she would make turns but he didn't know what else to do. After five or ten minutes he ran on to the beach and quickly looked around. Melissa was no where to be seen, Lex was sitting about twenty feet down the beach. Nathan ran over to him; Lex looked up at him surprised by his sudden appearance.

"Did you….see past here?" Nathan asked gasping for air.

Lex looked up at him for a moment longer before looking around. "No but I have something I need to show you." Lex said excitedly not realizing how worried Nathan was.

"Not now Lex." Nathan said before heading back down from the way he came.

_But you should know these colors that you're shining are..._

_Surely not the best colors that you shine  
Surely not the best colors that you shine _

I know you're feeling like you're lost  
But you should know these colors that you're shinin are  
I know you're feeling like you're lost,  
You feel you've drifted way too far  
Did you know these colors that you're shinin' are 

Lex watched Nathan walked down the beach with a disappointed look on his face. He'd been trying to tell everyone about the blooms in his garden were getting bigger and starting to form but everyone was too busy to listen. He felt invisible either they ignored him completely or they would tell him 'not now' like he was their pet dog or something. He picked up a stick and began digging it into the sand. He was tired of the older kids not listening to him when he had something important to tell them. He understood they were busy but everything he had to say was related to their survival. They should have learned by now that everything he done or had to say was for the best of the group. It seemed like he was the only one that actually saw how much danger they were in.

No one ever wanted to listen to him. Daley had lost the only thing he had that reminded him of why he was doing everything. He wanted to get home to his family more than anything. This island seemed more and more like home and that was not good. It meant that they were in bigger trouble than any of them could comprehend even him. They couldn't allow them selves to see this place as home or they might stop everything they were doing to get rescued. They were in big trouble especially since they had lost the plane along with most of their supplies in the storm.

Rescue planes and ships would never think twice about the island if they didn't see something that didn't belong there, like a crash plane for instance. They needed something big to put on the beach, something that could be seen at night and during the day, something that would be there twenty four hours a day that wouldn't take too much work away from gathering food and water. He stared at the ocean trying to think of what that could be. They didn't have much to work with so it would have to be something simple but noticeable. Maybe if he could think of something and make it without getting the older kids involved they would have something to look forward to…or at least something that gave them hope.

He stared at the ocean for the longest time before he got an idea. He looked around at the sun to see how long he had before night fall. He thought for a moment before standing up. _There's enough to at least get started._ He thought before running into the forest to find supplies. This had to work, it just had to.

_Surely not the best colors that you shine  
Surely not the best colors that you shine _

_Surely not the best..  
(I know you're feeling like you're lost)  
Colors that you shine..  
(but you should know these colors that you're shining are)  
Surely not the best..  
(I know you're feeling like you're lost you feel youve drifted way too far)  
Did you know these colors that you're shinin' are.._

**End of chapter two**


	3. Chapter 3: Splitting sides

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the charters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun. _

**A/N:**_Hey everyone, here's the third chapter. I know it took a little bit but it's longer than the rest and I had to debate a lot though out this chapter trying to keep everyone in character. I have a bad habit of going out of character without really meaning to. So let me know wither I kept them all in character or if I need to work on it. Thanks for the reviews they're all greatly appreciated, and thanks for reading.

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**Chapter Three: Splitting sides**

The night was completely quiet other than the normal sounds of nature that surrounded them. Everyone avoided talking about the day's events or anything else for that matter. Every time a question was asked it was answered with silence. Taylor had come back to camp just before the sun disappeared completely and Daley came back just before she did. Lex had gathered some supplies he needed for his plan and hid them at his garden. No use getting their hopes up just in case it didn't work. Everyone was sitting about five feet from one another, accept for Lex and Daley who were sitting side by side. Taylor stared down at her plate of food that Melissa handed out and the more she looked at it the more it made her sick to her stomach. She wasn't hungry and she hated being around everyone so she stood up and walked over to Eric knowing he would eat it. She handed it to him and without saying a word walked down to the beach.

When she figured she was far enough away from the group she sat down with her legs propped up in front of her and buried her feet beneath the sand. It was cold, the gentle warm breeze from that after noon was now chilled and it felt like a thousand needles against Taylor's warm skin. She only had on a pair of blue jean shorts and a white tank top. The fire made a huge difference at keeping them warm. The words Daley said earlier were still stuck in her head, haunting her like a bad dream she couldn't wake up from. After Melissa and Daley finished eating they both got up and went into the tent to go to sleep. Lex and Nathan both followed soon after then Eric. All of them just wanted the day to end along with the thick tension that hung around them. Jackson stood up but instead of going to bed he walked down to the beach and sat down beside Taylor.

For a long time all they did was sit there and stare out into the black ocean and the dark sky which seemed to blend in together. The moon was full and reflected off the ocean beautifully as the small slow waves washed up on to the beach before retreating back into the ocean. Jackson sighed and looked over at Taylor. She had goose bumps on her skin and her hair was blowing in the breeze. She never even looked over at him or acknowledged he was there.

"Hey…" He said softly looking for a reaction.

Taylor looked down at the sand. "Hi…" She said barley above a whisper.

"You know what Daley said earlier, it wasn't true…she just…" Jackson tried to explain.

"I don't really want to talk about it." Taylor interrupted and looked back out at sea. "I just want to be alone right now…"

Jackson nodded and reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. She was freezing but she didn't seem to notice the cold or that he touched her. She just continued to stare out into the black abysses. Jackson stood up and took off his black hooded sweat shirt and knelt down beside her.

"Alright, I'll be back down to check on you a little later. Here…" He said handing her his sweatshirt. "It's getting cold out."

Taylor looked over at him for the first time and gave him a faintly smiled. "Thanks Jackson." She said softly; taking the hoody.

"No problem." He said standing up and walking back towards camp.

Taylor watched him until he was out of sight before slipping the hoody on over her head. It practically swallowed her whole; she didn't realize how much bigger Jackson was then her until then. She pulled the bottom of the shirt over her legs and pulled the hood up over her head. She sat her chin on her knees and continued staring out into nothing. After an hour she stood up and brushed the sand off of her. She looked at the ocean one last time before heading back up at camp. Jackson was sitting in the sand by the fire poking at it with a stick. He looked up at her and gave her a faint smile. She returned it before sitting down beside him on the cooler he was leaning on.

"Did you stay up because you weren't tired or because of me?" She said softly staring at the fire.

"A little bit of both…" He said looking up at her. "Are you ok?"

She faintly smiled and looked over at him. "Yeah, I'm ok. Are you ready for bed?"

Jackson smiled and slowly nodded. "Sure…"

Taylor stood up and reached both hands down to help him up. Jackson looked up at her as he grabbed her hands and pulled his self up. They both stumbled but once they both got their balance back they let go of each others hands and carefully climbed into the tent to go to sleep. Melissa woke up early the next morning with somebody's elbow in her ribcage. She wasn't sure whose; it was still to dark for her to see anything but she could tell it was morning by the small chorus of birds singing in the distance. She groaned as sat up on her elbows and looked around the tent. She wasn't sure why, she wouldn't be able to see anything solid for another couple of hours. She sighed and sat the rest of the way and stood up. She made her way through the maze of bodies before crouching through the tent flap and stepping outside.

She could smell salt and the morning dew in the air. The sand was damp and cold underneath her feet but by then she had become use to it. There was enough light outside to see around camp so she wasn't worried about stepping on anything and getting hurt. She sighed when she seen the fire pit. All that was left was the glow of the burning embers. She walked over and picked up a few pieces of fire wood before walking over to the fire pit. She placed the wood neatly on top of the charred pieces already there. She stood up and grabbed with some flint they made out of the fibers from the outside of the coconuts they gathered out of the metal box Eric had found. She walked back over to the fire pit and re-started the fire. At first it was hard for any of them to keep the fire going and restart it just from the embers but once they learned what work and what didn't it got easier by the day.

Once the fire was burning strong again she sat down on one of the logs and stared at it. This survival stuff was easy compared to getting along. Everyone seemed to be snapping at each other more and more these days and if what Eric and Jackson said about Daley was true then they had a lot of damage control to do. She wasn't a big fan of Taylor's but telling her she was going to be responsible for someone's death was a bit much but then again Daley had been under a lot of pressure here lately and she lost the picture of her family. That was enough to send anyone over the edge especially when they were deserted on an island with no sign of being rescued anytime soon. She was never the type to think anything bad about anyone even when they deserved it but she wasn't the person she was back home. She changed so much that it was hard to tell wither she was her or something that this environment had changed her into.

She actually lied to Nathan, she would never do that back at home not in a million years but this time she had no problem with it. She didn't feel bad of guilty, but relived. Yeah it was a small lie about what was wrong with her but small lies usually lead to bigger ones pretty fast. She told him that she had gotten a little lost and began to panic and that she was too embarrassed to tell anyone. He believed her because all of them had gotten a little lost on this island a time or two or a dozen but that wasn't the point. Just because he believed her didn't make it right and to make matters worse she still couldn't get that image out of her head of them all standing around a mound of dirt crying and Nathan being the only one missing from the group. She even tried to occupy her mind by working or drawing but once she was finished it was there again like a bad memory.

"Mel!" Jackson said putting his hand on her shoulder.

Melissa jumped and turned towards him. She hadn't even noticed he came out of the tent much less that he was standing kneeling beside her. He had his eyes brows raised like he was trying to figure something out, probably why she had been ignoring him for the last minute or so.

"Yeah…I'm sorry what?" She said looking confused.

"Nothing." He said shaking his head.

He stood up and sat down on the same log she was a few inches away from her. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He looked back over at her and seen she was staring at the fire again but he could tell she wasn't making sure it wasn't going out. It was always obvious when there was something bothering her. It always showed plainly on her face and even more in her actions. Jackson looked around the camp site wondering what to say. Asking if something was wrong seemed like a pretty stupid question what wasn't wrong would be an easier one. Other then that fact they were all still alive and surviving everything was wrong. He sighed and looked back at her. She didn't even seem to notice he was still sitting there which was alone usual for her. She was always talking to him when ever he was around even though he tended to be the least social person on the island she always managed to get him to talk even if it was just a two second conversation.

"Are you ok?" He asked debating wither or not it was better than 'are you alright?'

She looked over at him and lowered her eyebrows. She knew he said something but by time she noticed he was talking it was too late to listen. She sighed and put her face in her hands. She couldn't believe she let her self get so distracted that she was ignoring the people around her especially Jackson. It wasn't a secret that she liked him more then friends, at least not since Taylor broadcasted it to everyone on the island. She sighed and looked over at him with her head laying on her knees.

"I'm sorry, what?" She said looking at him.

"What's wrong?" He asked already knowing the answer to the first question he asked.

"Oh nothing." She said shaking her head. "I was just thinking." She said giving him a slight smile.

"You don't really expect me to believe that do you?" He said raising his eyebrows at her.

She sighed and bit down on her bottom lip. She thought about what to say to him. He knew something was wrong and she didn't want to lie to him but she didn't want him to know about it either. She frowned and shrugged her shoulders before looking back at the fire. She hated not telling him everything but word traveled around fast on this island and she didn't want everyone knowing about it. They would twist and turn it into something awful like she wanted one of them to die or something. She couldn't handle that not now, not ever. Jackson shook his head and looked at the fire for a brief moment before standing up and walking towards the beach. He found a somewhat dry spot under a palm tree and sat down. He leaned against it and stared out at the ocean. Between Daley's break down, Taylor being caught in the crossfire and Melissa not talking to anyone, they were slowly falling apart and it seemed like he was the only one that actually noticed.

They all knew how dangerous it was for them not to be together. It was life threatening but it seemed like every time things were beginning to actually go good for them they began on a self destruct mission and turned on each other. He tried to keep them all together and focused but trying to keep them together was like trying to fight a lion with a stick. It didn't help that Eric was always manipulating some scheme to blackmail the others or cause trouble so that they would attack each other instead of paying attention to what he was doing and the bad thing was they always fell perfectly into them. He wanted to believe that they were strong enough to pull through it this time but he couldn't. There was too much on the table for all of them to handle and still come out the close family they'd become.

**

* * *

**One by one everyone slowly woke up and made their way over to the fire pit. By nine everyone was there but Jackson. No one seemed to notice anyone else, and no one attempted to talk this time. They all just stared blankly at the fire, it wasn't long before Daley stood up and walked over to the cooler with the food in it to prepare breakfast for everyone. After a few moments Melissa stood up and walked over to help. Daley gave her a small smile. 

"Thanks…" She said softly.

"Your welcome." She said talking just as softly as she was.

They both sat down on the sand and started sorting through the fruit that they were going to eat that morning. Examining them to make sure they were ripe and hadn't gone bad yet and to make sure none of them had been eaten into by worms or any other bugs. It was a normal routine when they were making meals to be sure that no one got sick from eating bad food.

"I heard about yesterday…" Melissa said after a few moments.

"You did?" Daley asked looking more hurt then angry.

Melissa nodded. "Have you apologized to her yet?"

Daley sighed and shook her head. "I've tried but either I can't find her or I can't find the words…how do you apologize for saying something like that?"

"I don't know but I think you two should at least talk. Maybe she'll forgive you." Melissa said hopefully.

"Doubtful." Daley scoffed.

"Daley…"

"What? I'm not saying anything that isn't public knowledge. Taylor isn't the most forgiving person in the world."

"I know but you could at least try…maybe she's changed and we've just been to busy or worried to notice."

"You of all people should know better than that." Daley said standing up with an arm full of fruit. "This should be enough for everyone, could you get the water?"

Melissa nodded and stood up. "Sure…"

She walked over to the cooler and began filling her arms with bottles of water. Daley walked over to the fire pit. She handed Nathan a couple of bananas then began going around the circle. Next was Eric, then Lex, when she walked over to Taylor she held out the bananas to her. She looked up and shook her head.

"I'm not hungry…" She said softly.

"Taylor you need to eat…" Daley said trying to be as civil as possible.

"I will when I get hungry but I'm not right now." Taylor said looking up at her.

"Did you eat anything last night? Listen Taylor if this is about yesterday I'm…"

"It's not!" Taylor interrupted. She sighed and looked up at her. "It's has nothing to do with anything I'm just not hungry right now, I'll eat a little later."

"Can I have hers?" Eric called out looking at Daley.

He had already eaten one and was half way through the other. Daley looked behind her and glared at Eric. She couldn't believe how self centered he was even after they'd been stranded together all this time. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"No, Taylor needs to eat!" Daley said looking back at Taylor.

"I will when I'm actually hungry!" Taylor said standing up.

Melissa walked over and stepped in between Daley and Taylor to make sure they wouldn't start hitting each other. They seemed to be getting closer and closer to that as a group whenever they would argue. Melissa smiled and held up a bottle of water.

"Water anyone?" She said looking back and forth between Daley and Taylor.

Taylor frowned and looked at Melissa. "Sure…" She took the bottle of water and walked off into the forest.

Melissa frowned and watched Taylor walk into the forest. She handed everyone else a bottle of water before grabbing two more bananas and a bottle of water. She walked down to the beach and knelt down beside Jackson.

"Here you go…" She said sweetly but the worry she felt bled into her voice.

Jackson took the water and the fruit and faintly smiled. "Thanks…"

Melissa nodded and stood up. She walked back up to camp knowing it wouldn't be long before she would have to play referee again. Lex quickly finished eating then rushed off towards his garden. No one thought any thing of it because he usually rushed off to his garden after eating anyways. Nathan took a long drink of water before pouring it into his canteen. He looked over at Daley and seen she was doing the same. They never took the plastic bottles into the woods knowing it would probably get lost so they just used their canteens when they weren't around camp.

"Hey Daley, do you want to go further inland with me to find more fruit?" Nathan asked already knowing the answer.

"Sure." Daley said standing up just as Melissa walked up from the beach. "Hey Mel, can you keep an eye on Lex and make sure he doesn't get hurt?"

Melissa nodded and smiled. "Yeah."

Daley smiled. "Thanks and Eric." She said looking at him. "Actually do some work today, you can get some water from the well and if you don't you won't get any water." She said before disappearing into the forest with Nathan.

Eric just scoffed in response and rolled his eyes but he stood up anyways and grabbed two empty jugs. Melissa watched him as he walked away smiling at how well Daley got everyone to work but it also made her wonder if it was worth it. She wanted to go find Taylor and talk to her but she knew she probably just wanted to be left alone. As far as she knew Lex was off in his garden and Jackson said something about fishing after breakfast. She was alone again, which happened more times then she would have liked. The only time they ever spent as a group was meals, discussions and arguments. Any other time they all went in separate directions which is probably why they had so many close calls at splitting up. _Was Taylor wearing Jackson's shirt? _Melissa thought suddenly lowering her eyebrows.

**

* * *

**Nathan and Daley walked through the forest along the same path they walked every time they went hunting for food. They both figured it would be easier to find their way back if they traveled off of a path they knew. Nathan couldn't stop thinking about the morning events, he didn't believe it when he heard about Daley flipping out on Taylor but now he had his doubts. Daley never even said things like that to him while they were in competition he didn't understand why she would all of sudden flip out on Taylor especially when she had changed into a nice girl since they arrived. She didn't yell all the time; she was more accepting to other ideas, and she wasn't as stubborn as she used to be. 

It just didn't seem like her to say such horrible things to someone even with a reason. He knew after things went from one person to another they got deluded and changed but from the way her and Taylor acted the night before and this morning he was beginning to think that wasn't the case this time. He didn't want to ask her about it and become the next victim so he decided to wait until her or Taylor told him their selves. Daley stopped and sighed looking around at all the trees around them.

"There's no fruit up here, maybe we should try somewhere else?" She said looking over at him.

"Let's walk for ten more minutes this way and if we don't find anything then we'll go back and take another direction." He said looking over at her.

She smiled and nodded. "Alright, sounds good."

She continued walking straight and Nathan followed behind her. She didn't seem to be any different, everything that was being said must have been an exaggeration or a lie maybe. There was no way she could have said something like that then act like nothing happened the next day. She may have changed but not by that much. Nathan smiled to his self, happy that he disproved the rumors. They must have gotten into an argument and Taylor said all those things and within the he said she said line it got mixed up. _Yeah…that's more of a Taylor thing, nothing like Daley. _He thought to his self.


	4. Chapter 4: The final break

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the charters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun._

**A/N:** _I'm having a lot of doubts about this chapter so please review and let me know what you think.

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_

**Chapter four: The final break**

Nathan sat down beside Daley on a fallen tree and took a long chug of his water. He and Daley were dripping with sweat and Daley's face was a deep red. They'd been wondering out in the forest for what seemed like hours to them and had yet to find any fruit or coconuts laying on the ground or in the trees. It was hard to concentrate with the sun beating down on them. You would think that the trees would provide some protection but instead they made it muggy and humid inside the thick areas of the forest and when they were in the open areas they had to deal with the sun. They couldn't win for losing out there and to make matters worst neither of them wanted to go back to camp empty handed.

Most of their trip was made in silence and the rest consisted of small chit chat. They avoided talking about what really mattered for different reasons but the most common one that lingered in their head is making the each other mad. Daley looked around at the tree tops sighing in defeat. She was really tired, really hot, and she couldn't go five minutes without thinking about what happened the day before and that morning at breakfast. Could Taylor really be that mad at her that she refused to eat the food she gave her? Or was it more out of fear? She hated to admit it back Jackson was right, she had no reason for going off on Taylor like she did. Her own words ran through her mind, but even then she couldn't believe she had said such horrible things to her and the look on her face after she was through…It really hurt Taylor. Usually her lectures and yelling only made Taylor mad but this time she went way overbroad.

She ran her fingers through her hair and looked around once more. "You know what? There is nothing out here. We should go back to camp and cool down then try looking somewhere else…maybe further down the beach." She said looking over at Nathan.

He looked around and nodded. "Good idea, we'll start back in a few minutes. Right now we need to rest…So did you ever find your picture?" He asked looking over at her.

She shook her head and looked down at the ground. "No, I looked everywhere…someone must have taken it as some sick practical joke but I'm not sure wither it was Taylor or Eric."

"Maybe someone just misplaced it on accident, have you checked in all of your jean pockets?" Nathan asked still staring at her.

"Yes Nathan I've checked everywhere!" She said anger creeping into her voice.

"Whoa Daley…" He said holding up both hands. "I didn't mean to make you mad, it was just a question."

Daley sighed and buried her head in her hands. "I'm sorry Nathan…I didn't mean to snap like that."

Nathan sighed and put his hand on her back. "It's cool, were all under a lot of stress."

She shrugged and looked over at him. "I guess so…lets go ahead and head back before we die of a heat stroke or something." She said standing up.

Nathan nodded and followed in behind her. They rarely walked side by side; the path was so small one of them would end up falling into the bushes and getting hurt. But at least now they were able to be around each other without feeling awkward the whole time. Things between them were actually finally returning to normal unfortunately things were only getting worse back at camp. He wanted to keep faith that they would make it through it this time like they managed to do all the other times things have gotten bad but this time even he had his doubts. He wasn't sure if they were strong enough to keep pulling through these obstacles that always seemed to get worse and harder to overcome.

**

* * *

**Taylor sighed exhaustedly and looked around. The air was getting thicker and more humid the further she walked up hill and the forest was getting almost impassable. The trees were significantly larger and taller than the ones near the camp and the tree tops were so thick that barley any light was able to shine though. The ground was rigid, it was damp and slippery. There were a lot of sharp rocks sticking out of the ground along with large roots, thorns, and vines that had fallen from the trees. She found her self slipping and falling every few feet. Dark purple and blue bruises had already begun to appear on her knees and she had a lot of scrapes, scratches and cuts and her hands and elbows were scraped up and sore from all the falls. Some were pretty deep but they had stopped bleeding after a few minutes so she continued on her journey to no where. 

She had the hoody Jackson let her wear tied around her waist. It didn't help the heat but she already had enough people mad at her she didn't want to add Jackson to the list. She stopped and looked around. She'd been walking for at least an hour, she wasn't sure how long exactly but it was long enough for her to start running low on drinking water. Her face was a bit red from the heat and she was sweating which would have been disgusting to her if she hadn't been stranded on this island for like ever. She looked further up the hill and it was so thick she couldn't see ten feet a head of her. She sighed and turned around. She took a small sip of her water before she slowly headed back towards camp. After a few feet she tripped on a slippery rock and feel backwards she slid at least three feet before she was able to stop her self.

"Owwww!" Taylor said as tears whelmed up in her eyes.

The rock she slipped on covered the entire ground where she was walking. It must have been apart of the mountain. Her legs were scraped up from her ankle to her thighs and her shirt had risen up letting the jagged rock scrape her ribs, back and the whole side of her arm on her right side. She winced as she slowly sat up. She began crying as the burning became worse and worse by the moment. She should've stopped walking after she was away from camp instead of being stubborn and walking up the huge hill. There was no way she could show up at camp like this. Everyone would think she was a bigger failure then what they already did. She had to find a way to get cleaned up and get clothes that would cover her wounds but she wasn't sure how without being seen by someone. She had Jackson's shirt to cover her arms, it was damp but still clean for the most part but all her pants were in the tent.

She winced as she tried to stand up. She fell as pain shot up through her leg. _Great I twisted my ankle to._ She thought in dread. She grabbed a hold of the nearest tree and slowly pulled her self up. She limped down the hill grabbing at every tree she could to keep her self from falling. She bit down on her bottom lip to help her bare with the pain but tears still filled her eye making it harder and harder to see. _Just walk straight Taylor and you'll be alright. Just keep going straight… _She thought as she stumbled down the hill.

**

* * *

**Eric groaned as he walked back into camp and dumped the half filled jugs of water by the camp fire. The blisters on his hands from carrying water every day since they had arrived was popping up and bursting constantly. His arms felt like they weighed a million pounds and his shoulders constantly felt like the bones were grinding together. He winced as he sat down in the sand and laid flat on him back, taking deep breaths in and out to manage through the pain. Melissa watched him for a few moments before she began to fill the water bottles up again. It wasn't long before Jackson walked up from the beach carrying his fishing pole. He stabbed it in the ground and sat down beside Melissa. His face and arms were sunburned like everyone else's but he was the only one that didn't complain about it. He picked up a bottle of water and chugged it until he was forced to stop for air. He gasped for air as he examined the camp. He looked over at Melissa questioningly. 

"Has anyone seen Taylor since she left this morning?"

Eric narrowed his eyes, furious with Jackson's question. He was tired of him trying to get all of the women on the island so he could have them all for his self. He already had Melissa, and no one but Nathan really liked Daley but now he was showing special interest in Taylor. The main reason he came on this trip was to get to close to her and now he was trying to move in on her like a shark on a wounded…fish…_That babe is mine! _Eric thought as he pushed his self into a sitting position despite the pain

Melissa shook her head. "No, she hasn't even come back for food yet…do you think we should worry?"

He shrugged and looked around. "Maybe…it's been a few hours."

Eric pushed his self off the ground and stood up. He walked over to Jackson in a huff stopping a few feet away from him. "You know what?! I am so sick of you trying to take all the girls on this island with your mystery man routine! They're too blind to see the true criminal you really are!"

Melissa was shocked by Eric's sudden out burst of anger but shock quickly turned to fear when Jackson stood up and glared at Eric.

"Screw you!" He said walking towards Eric, he took a step back but then he stood his ground.

Lex came walking out of the woods on the other side of camp and stared at both boys his eyes widened. He wasn't sure what he missed but he didn't like the look of things. Jackson got in Eric's face and shoved him backwards. Before Jackson had a chance to say anything Eric shoved him back. Jackson balled up his fist and punched Eric. With a blink of an eye they were both rolling around on the ground punching each other.

"Stop it!" Lex screamed as loud as he could.

Melissa stood up and ran over to them. She grabbed Jackson to try to drag him off but when she did he was already raising his hand to hit Eric again and his elbow collided with her nose and eye. She fell back on the sand and reached up with her hand. Her nose was bleeding and bad. She looked at Lex who looked completely terrified.

"Lex! Go get Daley and Nathan!" She yelled.

She didn't really expect him to find them but she didn't want him to see this. Lex ran down their normal path to find fruit. Melissa stood back up and ran over to them and grabbed Jackson's arm to keep him from hitting Eric again but he just jerked his arm away.

"Stop it you two!" She yelled grabbing a hold of Jackson again.

Nathan and Daley both came running out of the forest and rushed towards them. Lex stopped at the edge of the forest and watch horrified at what was happening. Jackson jerked his arm away again causing Melissa to fall back down on the sand. Nathan ran up behind Jackson and wrapped him arms around his chest and jerked him away from Eric. He got elbowed in the eye in the process but he didn't let go. Eric quickly stood up and rushed towards Jackson but Melissa rushed in front of him and Daley grabbed his arms from behind.

"What the hell is going on here?" Nathan yelled finally after Jackson stopped struggling to get away from him.

"Oh my god! Mel! You're bleeding!" Daley said looking at her worriedly

Melissa reached up with her hand and put it on her nose. "I know it's no big deal."

Daley jerked Eric back making him fall backwards. She stepped in between them and eyed Jackson and Eric. "You two were the only ones fighting how in the hell did Melissa get a bloody nose and a black eye?!" She said looking at Melissa.

Her eye had already begun to turn purple and swell. Both Jackson and Eric looked down at the ground. Melissa walked over and sat down on one of the logs picking up the first aid kit and getting a piece of gauze out of it. She pressed it on her nose and looked around at everyone. The lack of answerers from the two boys was just making her anger grow. Both of them looked unsure and guilty so there wasn't any way to tell which one was responsible for hurting Melissa. She felt like she was about to explode. She looked over at her little brother. He was standing in the corner crying. She'd never seen his cry before, not like this.

Since they've been on the island he'd been completely strong but now his eyes were red and filled with tears. Melissa seen it too so she stood up and walked over to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her shirt. She wrapped her arm around him and rubbed his back. Nathan let go of Jackson when he was sure he wouldn't try to fight Eric again and stepped beside Daley.

"What happened?" He said looking from one boy to the other.

Finally Eric looked up. "I got tired of everyone thinking he's some kind of savior when all he really is, a criminal!" Eric yelled angrily pointing at Jackson.

He had a bloody nose, a cut on the side of his eye and a black eye as well. Jackson glared and began walking towards Eric. Nathan stepped in front of him and pushed him back. Jackson had a bloody nose but that was the only visible wound he had.

"Enough!" Nathan yelled. "Haven't you two done enough? Look at Melissa! She got hurt because you two decided to fight and Lex is terrified! What in the hell do you think this is going to prove?"

Both boys looked at Melissa and Lex wondering the same thing. _'What had they done?'_


	5. Chapter 5: The search

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the charters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun. _

**A/N:**_This chapter skips around a lot like from Jackson, to Nathan, to Daley ect. I tried to make it as less confusing as possible each part will be marked off with the line as usual so it shouldn't be to confusing, also when they split up, all the sections are happening at the same time which is why they all hear the same thing. (You'll understand that later) It's just telling everyone's views and what their going through. Let me know what you think and as always I hope you enjoy reading it.

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_

**Chapter five: The search**

Taylor looked around the forest. She'd been sitting on a large bolder for a while now trying to let the pain ease up a bit before she continued back to camp but it just seemed to be getting worse and worse. Her ankle was throbbing, her entire right side felt like it was on fire, and her knees felt like they were going to give out on her with every step she took. It took every ounce of strength she had in her to keep from sobbing. She could barley see now she knew if she began sobbing now she would never get back to camp.

"HELP ME SOMEBODY! PLEASE?!" She screamed as loud as she could.

Her voice echoed back at her like it was teasing her reminding her how far from camp she had actually walked. She let out a small sob as she looked around her. It seemed like she was still a thousand miles from camp and she felt like she couldn't even walk one more step. She wasn't even sure which was camp was anymore. She knew it was obviously down hill since she walked up hill to get where she was but everything looked the same everywhere she went. She was lost, hurt, and scared. She knew no one back at camp would notice she was missing. If they didn't notice she was working it was a long shot to think they would notice that she wasn't around.

"Somebody please! Help me!" Her voice cracked to where it was barley auditable even to her.

She broke down into a sob, her body trembled and ached. It would be getting dark soon and she was still stuck in this stupid forest. At that moment she would have been happy to see anyone even Daley of all people. She didn't care wither they saw her hurt or not all she cared about was getting back home, as messed up as that thought was but the camp had become home to her, to everyone. She hated being alone and being surrounded by trees, giant bugs, mosquitoes, and lizards. Her bottle of water was barley a third of the way full and she was starving. She sniffled back her tears and wiped them from her eyes. She took a deep breath and braced her self with her hands as she slowly slid off the rock which turned out to be an even worse idea because she scrapped her back against it. She winced and let got of the rock and fell straight to the ground scraping the rest of her back on the rock. She groaned in pain and leaned forward.

_No wonder Daley freaked out on me I can't even get off a stupid rock without hurting myself._ Taylor thought as she sat up. She stopped her self from breaking down in tears again despite the pain and the fear she needed to be able to see at least somewhat in order to stop from walking in circles and most importantly to get home. She forced her self to stand and gripped a three to help her keep her balance. She began limping down the hill fighting the urge to fall on her knees. She grabbed a hold of every tree she came across to help stay on her feet. _God I'm such an idiot! _

**

* * *

**Eric was still sitting on the ground where Daley had jerked him back. He was scared to stand up, he'd never seen Daley this mad before other than the time she flipped out on Taylor and frankly he didn't want to become the next one to suffer from her spiteful yelling. Jackson was standing ten feet from him with his hands in his front pocket. He didn't even seem to notice that he had a bloody nose. Nathan walked over to the first aid kit and grabbed enough gauze for Jackson, Eric, and Melissa. The piece she had was already filled with blood and she needed a new piece but Lex was too scared to let go so she could get a new one. He walked over and handed a piece to Melissa. She smiled thankfully. He smiled back and walked over and handed two to Eric, one for his eye and one for his nose then handed one to Jackson. 

Jackson nodded at him but didn't say anything. He put the gauze to his nose and sat down on the sand with his legs propped in front of him and his elbows resting on his knees. He put the gauze over his nose and put pressure on it. It didn't hurt, Eric hit like a girl and he was horrible at aiming. He looked over at Melissa and Lex and a sense of dread washed over him. They both looked completely crushed and just to make matters worse Melissa got hurt while trying to break up the fight. He couldn't remember much about it, most of it was just a blur but he remembered enough to know that Melissa had grabbed a hold of him to pull him off of Eric and unless Eric had arms three feet long and missed drastically he was the one who hit her. He didn't mean to hurt her; that was the last thing he wanted to do was hurt someone else but it happened.

"Alright who started it?" Daley said jerking Jackson from his thoughts.

"I asked if anyone seen Taylor and Eric flipped." Jackson said looking up at Daley.

Daley looked over at Jackson worriedly. "What do you mean?"

Jackson looked at her confused. "What?"

"No one has seen Taylor since she left this morning?" Daley asked looking around the group everyone shook their head no. "It's been hours, she should've been back by now. Does anyone know which way she went when she left?" Daley said trying to remember her self.

Everyone looked as clueless as she did everyone but Jackson. He looked behind him and pointed at the woods behind him. None of them had been up that way to far. After a short distance it became a steep hill that looked way too dangerous to climb. _Why couldn't she pick a less dangerous place to pout?_ Daley thought burying her face in her hands. She took a long and deep breath before looking up at everyone else.

"We have to go find her, we'll deal with this later…and we will deal with it!" She said looking from Eric to Jackson. "But right now, we have to find her. Melissa, do you mind staying here with Lex? I don't want him walking up that hill."

Melissa nodded and looked around at everyone. "Be careful." Everyone nodded.

Lex stood up and took a couple steps towards them but stopped before he got to close. "Search for about a hour then come back and just walk straight. You guys don't want to get lost out there especially when we only have a couple hours of day light left. Take a couple bottles of water with you just in case you do find her. I don't think she took any water but that one bottle." Lex said looking around at the whole group.

Everyone nodded. "We'll split up to cover more ground and to keep Jackson and Eric away from each other. We'll each take a point in the woods about twenty feet away from each other and we'll take some supplies from the first aid kit just in case she's hurt." Daley explained handing out two bottles of water out to everyone before taking some herself.

Everyone put some gauze and aspirin along with a few other items in their pockets then split up and began walking into the forest at first they could hear each other walking and yelling for her but after a couple hundred feet alls they could hear was the noises coming from their own feet and the birds flying around above them. Daley and Nathan made sure that they were both in between Eric and Jackson to keep anything else from happening today. They all had enough excitement for one day.

**

* * *

**Melissa sat on one of the logs by the campfire holding the piece of gauze to her nose. She didn't blame Jackson for hitting her or even Eric for starting the fight. It was an accident, it wasn't like he knew she would run up behind him right when he was about to hit Eric again. She felt bad that Lex had to see it though. He looked up to the older kids to keep everything together and here recently they were destroying more than they were fixing. Lex knelt down beside the first aid kit and got an alcohol swab out. He walked over to Melissa and stood in front of her. He ripped the alcohol swab open, Melissa looked at him for a moment before taking the gauze off her nose. Lex winced and looked up at her. 

"Has it stopped bleeding?" She asked.

He slowly nodded and began to clean the blood off her face. "Yeah but your eye looks really bad."

"It'll be alright." She said giving him a reassuring smile.

She put her hand on his shoulder and rubbed it with her thumb for a moment before standing up. She grabbed the bin they made into a trash can and walked around camp picking up all the paper's and pieces of gauze laying around. Lex walked around helping her. Once they were done Melissa put the lid on the bin then put it back beside the tent. She checked their food and water. They had enough food to last them at least a coupled days but only enough water to last them till night fall. She frowned and looked over at Lex. He was staring up at her; his eyes were full of pain and sadness. She'd never seen him like this even when they first crashed he seemed calm and collected. She gave him a slight smiled and picked up two empty jugs.

"Do you want to help me get some water?"

Lex shrugged and looked up at her. "Sure."

He picked up one of the empty jugs and followed her to the well. He couldn't stop thinking about how everyone seemed so distant from the group. All of them so stuck in their own world and their own drama that they ignored everyone around them. It was like all of them were together on the island but no one was really there. He hated seeing them so vulnerable. One big disaster could whip them all out because they would all be running in separate directions. He couldn't get the image of Taylor laying somewhere unconscious and bleeding because she fell and hit her head. At the rate they were going, and the way they were all acting they would never find her. Lex and Melissa knelt down beside the well and began using a couple empty bottles of water to fill the jugs. They didn't say much, they didn't have to. They were both thinking the same thing.

"I'll be right back…I gotta do something…" He said looking up at Melissa.

"Alright." Melissa said looking over at him and nodding. "But don't go too far, ok?" She said looking at him worriedly.

"I won't." He said standing up and walking back towards camp.

When he got there he went straight to one of the plastic bins and took the top off. He glanced through it before he put the lid back on and went to the next. He picked up the video camera and got his tape out of the tent. He sat down on the tent floor and sat the camera up on Daley's backpack. He turned it on and pressed record.

_**Lex's video diary **_

"_A lot has happened in the last couple of days so I haven't really had the time to add anything. Today has been the worst day we've had since we got stranded here. We've had bad things happen but nothing like this…even the storm wasn't as bad as this. Daley lost our family portrait and I guess it's no big deal but it got her really stressed out and she lost her temper with Taylor. I don't know the whole story or fact from fiction because it's all he said she said but from the sound of things it was really bad so bad that Taylor has been acting nothing like her self. Disappearing for hours at a time, not eating, and even when she is around camp she's not really here. She doesn't talk to anyone or even acknowledge that their there." _

_Lex sighed and whipped the tears from his eyes. "And now we think she may have gotten lost in the most dangerous part of the island that we've seen aside from where she and Melissa fell off the cliff. If that wasn't bad enough Jackson and Eric got in a fight today…not an argument but an actual fight…that's a first even for us. Melissa tried to break it up and ended up getting a busted nose and a black eye for it because Jackson hit her. I don't think he meant to but that doesn't change the fact that he did it and the whole thing started over Jackson asking about Taylor. It's so stupid, it's taking less and less to send the older kids over the edge and the more time goes by the more we fall apart. If things keep going the way they are were never going to last long enough to be rescued. I feel like the only person I can trust anymore is Melissa…she seems to be the only one who hasn't lost it or is out to get revenge on someone…" _

_**End of video diary**_

Lex turned off the video camera and put everything back where it was supposed to go before rushing off back to help Melissa.

**

* * *

Jackson** stopped and whipped the sweat from his forehead as he looked around for any sign that Taylor had been through there. There weren't any, not even some foot prints in the mud. His head jerked up towards the sky as thunder rumbled in the distance. The sound was muffled and it could barley be heard but the last storm came on pretty quick and ended up taking everything they needed to survive and scattering it across the beach and into the trees. He looked around one more time examining the ground and the trees around him so he wouldn't get lost. 

"TAYLOR!" He yelled with his hands cupped around his mouth.

He waited for a few moments for a response when there wasn't any he continued walking. He half expected Eric to jump him from behind for looking for her after the way he flipped out on him back at camp for just mentioning her name. He couldn't believe that he had actually gotten into a fight with him. He managed to keep him self from fighting everyone else but for some reason Eric had been the toughest and after he flipped out on him he couldn't control his anger any longer. He regretted letting Eric get to him the way he did, that Melissa got hurt in the process, and that Lex had to see it all. The more and more he thought about it the madder he got at his self and at Eric. He about slipped but stopped his self by grabbing a hold of a tree. _Pay attention before you're the one needing a search party. _He thought to his self as he got his balance back.

He wondered wither anyone would come and look for him after what happened. He even had his doubts about Melissa. If he was the one who hit her, even if it was an accident, she wouldn't be any rush to be alone with him again or risking her life to save his. Eric and Taylor were defiantly out for different reasons, and from the looks of it so was Nathan and Daley. He began walking again once he was sure he was steady enough. He cleared his mind of everything accept for keeping up with the time and looking for Taylor. He couldn't think of anything else right now, not without getting his self killed. He took a small drink of water and continued walking up the hill. He stopped for a few seconds and looked around. He cupped his hands around his mouth.

"TAYLOR!" He yelled again looking around for any sign of movement and listening for her to yell back.

**

* * *

Nathan** walked up the hill fighting the urge to stop and rest. They only had an hour to look for Taylor before they all headed back to camp and she'd been gone since breakfast she had a huge head start. He took a drink of his water before sticking the bottle in his back pocket. He grabbed a hold of trees, and vines to help pull his self up the hill because his legs were felling heavier and heavier by the minute. He was hot, tired, and angry that things got so out of hand so fast. He never even saw it coming; it seemed like over night everything went from being ok and working to complete chaos. Everyone was turning on one another, loosing their tempers, plotting revenge, and taking off into uncharted wilderness. He sighed out of frustration and looked around. 

"TAYLOR!" He yelled as loud as he could before continuing up the steep hill.

He didn't think there was any reason to stop there was too much ground to cover and not a lot of time. Maybe everything he heard about Daley loosing it on Taylor yesterday was true. Taylor wasn't the wilderness type; in fact she complained the whole time she was in it. She wouldn't just take off to view the scenery and after what happened at breakfast. Everything was adding up and he didn't like the answer. He couldn't believe that Daley would just go off like that without reason and even with a reason he still couldn't see Daley doing something like that. He groaned and stopped on one of the very few places that was actually flat ground. It was only about two feet wide but it was wide enough for him to catch his breath. He took a long chug of water then looked around. Taylor really knew how to maximize the drama around camp. It was automatic with her and Eric or at least it seemed that way. They didn't even have to try all the time, just their absent mind and their self centered personality was enough.

"TAYLOR!" He yelled again as her began to walk up the next endless steep hill.

His ribs were beginning to hurt and his heart felt like it was going to beat right out his chest. He couldn't catch his breath for long and the further he walked the hotter it seemed to get. He still didn't seen any sign that Taylor had been through there although it could've been hours since she'd been that close to camp. He almost fell again when he heard thunder. He looked up at the sky but alls he could see was glimpses through the trees. This was getting ridiculous not only did they have to deal with the constant drama they had to deal with a storm coming as well. He shook his head and continued up the hill. _God I really hate this place! _

**

* * *

Daley** walked up the hill grabbing a hold of anything that would help her get up there faster. She hid it well but the guilt was eating away at her inside. She couldn't get the image of Taylor laying unconscious somewhere all bruised and cut up. What she said to her was burning in the back of her mind replaying over and over and each time it did the closer she got to crying. What had she done? Ever since she lost it the other day it seemed like a chain reaction everyone started loosing it. She started all of this just because of a picture. Yeah it was important to her but not if it caused the group to fall apart. Their survival depended on them sticking together. She had said it to the group a million times but she was the one who needed to hear it the most. They were all under stress, and they all had their issues but that didn't mean that they could walk around snapping at the first person that walked by. 

The look on Taylor's face enraged her before but now it haunted her. She looked crushed, like someone had just broken her. Being on this island was turning them all into cavemen, the only ones who seemed to be unaffected was Lex until today. He would never be able to trust Jackson and Eric again. They shattered his trust along with his respect and most likely they shattered some of him as well. Why couldn't they just get along? They all know how important it is for them but it doesn't seem to matter. Daley stopped and leaned against a tree. She took a drink of her water, stuck in back in the small pack she was carrying, and looked around. _How long had it been since we all left camp? _Daley shook her head clueless. She'd been so lost in her thoughts that it seemed like only minutes ago she was racing through the forest towards camp. She sighed and looked back down the hill. She walked a long way; she couldn't even see the sand or the tent anymore.

Her face was red and dripping with sweat. She felt like she was about to dehydrate but she knew that wasn't true. She was just exhausted and hot. She needed to conserve all the water she could if they found Taylor….when they found Taylor. She put her hands on the tree and pushed her self up. Once she got her balance she continued up the hill walking as fast as her lungs and feet would allow.

"Taylor!" She tried to yell but her voice cracked.

_Fine I won't yell I'll just look for her. _She was annoyed with her self; she couldn't even yell how was she supposed to find Taylor? Come to think of it she was probably better off not yelling. If Taylor heard her looking for her she would probably run in the other direction. She heard thunder in the far distance. She rolled her eyes to her self but kept hiking up the hill. _Can't we just get a little break! Is that too much to ask for?!_

**

* * *

Eric** slowly walked up the hill. He could barley see out of his one eyes, his rids were killing him, and his head was throbbing in pain. He wanted to turn around and go back to camp but he was determined not to let Jackson be the hero this time. That would defiantly seal the deal between them and he would become invisible to her again just like back at school. He wasn't willing to go back to that not in a million long years. He would find Taylor, become the hero, and in return for saving her life she would become his girlfriend or at least that was the plan. _That would show Jackson whose better!_ He nodded satisfied to his self. It would make him a hero back at camp too. No more lugging water, no more work for that matter. Everyone would forget that he had anything to do with the fight and Jackson would get all the punishment. _Hopefully it's a vote right off this island! That would serve him right. _He thought as he took a long chug from his bottle of water. 

He sighed happily to his self as he fantasized about his return to camp with Taylor in his arms. They would all yell and cheer, even Jackson would envy him. They would appoint him leader and he would be Taylor's arm candy when they got back home, or better yet she would be his. He would get a medal for his bravery and brilliance. He would even get his own movie contract. _Hello Hollywood. _He smiled but it quickly faded when the pain in his face multiplied by ten. He sat down on a rock to rest. He hadn't even broke a sweat yet, but hero's needed their rest for the rescuing not for the search. He thought about what would happen when he got to her. She would probably kiss him the moment she saw him and thank him. She would swear to be his and only his and she would hate Jackson for hurting him. He shook his head; he was turning it into a cheesy romance novel. Once he felt like it he stood up again and began up the hill.

He hunkered down like he was being shot at when he heard the thunder in the distance. It sounded pretty far away. He stood up and began walking up the hill again. _But if it gets any closer Taylor will have to wait for a little while to be rescued. _

**

* * *

Daley's** legs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds and she had to slow her pace drastically. The hill only seemed to get steeper and steeper the more she walked and it wasn't get any easier to save her water. She could feel her chest twisting into knots and her body ached. She refused to give up until she absolutely had to. It was her fault Taylor was out there and if she got hurt…she would never forgive herself. She had to find her despite what her body was telling her she couldn't stop and rest, not even for a second. Once she found her and found out she was ok she would rest but not before. She took a small sip of her water then put the lid back on it tightly and tucked it inside her pack. She heard another crash of thunder this time it sounded a bit closer. She wasn't sure wither it was because it was closer to the sky of if it was closer to her. She came to a drop off in the hill, it was only a couple feet tall and about a foot wide but it was nothing but rock. She must be closer to the mountain than she thought. 

She took a deep breath and walked up to it. She had to get up it wither she wanted to or not. _Taylor is waiting! _She told her self as she put her feet on some jagged pieces of the rock and pushed her self up. After a few steps she was able to reach across the ledge and grab a vine that was sticking from the ground. She held it tightly with both hands and walked up the rock with her feet. _Just like climbing the wall in gym_ She thought as her feet got closer to the top. Suddenly the vine broke and she went crashing down to the ground. She hit her head on a rock and just as sudden as her fall everything went black.


	6. Chapter 6: Missing

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the charters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun. _

**A/N: **_This chapter is a little short; it's sort of just a bridge from this chapter to the next. Let me know what you think.

* * *

_

**Chapter Six: Missing **

The wind had picked up speed drastically since the rest of the group left and the thunder was getting louder and closer together by the minute. Above camp the sky looked perfectly calm, blue with white clouds but in the distance the sky was grey and threatening. It was dark and gloomy, and the scariest part about it was the dark grey clouds went as far as they could see into the horizon. Melissa looked over where the others had left through hoping that all of them would come stumbling out with a yelling Taylor about how horrible it was getting lost out there but there was no sign of anyone. She sighed worriedly and picked up one of the bins that were sitting by the tent. She carried over and sat it down in front of the tent flap. She and Lex both decided it was best to put them inside the tent this time so they would be sure nothing would get swept off in the storm.

They moved the tent closer to the hill just as they did before to protect them from most of the wind and they weighed down the edges with large rocks to give it extra support. She smiled at Lex as he came out of the tent. She needed to be strong if only to make him feel a little better. He smiled half heartedly back up at her and looked over at the forest just as she did seconds before. They never looked at him like a ten year old who was dealing with the same things they were. He acted a lot older then he was but deep down he was just a ten year old boy stuck on a deserted island fighting to survive like the rest of them. He was the only one that didn't start arguments, or fights, or even throw a temper tantrum but some how he was always the one stuck in the middle of one.

"I rearranged the sleeping bags so that if we put the bins against the tent wall and stack them up by twos everything should fit. It will be a tight fit and a lot less sleeping room but at least we won't have to start from scratch again." Lex said pulling Melissa from her thoughts.

Melissa smiled and looked down at him. "Good job Lex!"

She ruffled his hair with her hand before picking the bin up and carrying it inside. Lex was right there wasn't much room but at least everything would be safe. She carried it over to the wall that Lex had cleared and sat it down. It was the side that would most likely get the biggest beating with the bins there it would give it more strength. She smiled at how Lex was always thinking about what was best even at a time like this he gave everything some thought. She walked outside and about ran into one of the other bins. She narrowed her eyes and looked over at where the bin originally was and Lex was pulling the other towards the tent. She jogged over to him and grabbed the other side. They both lifted it up and carried it over to the tent.

They both sat it down and Melissa picked one up and carried in inside putting it on top of the other. She made sure the trash bin was the first to go in that was they would have access to the food and water if they needed it. She walked outside and picked up the last bin. Before she turned to carry inside but something caught her eye. She narrowed them as she looked over. She dropped the bin and widened her eyes when she seen Jackson limping out of the forest. His pants were torn and he had a large gash on his shin. Lex was the first to move, he grabbed the first aid kit and ran towards him but stopped ten feet from him obviously from fear. Melissa frowned and ran over to him putting her arm around him to help him walk. She helped him over to the fire pit and helped him sit down on the ground.

"Have the others come back yet?" He asked wincing as Melissa pulled the fabric from his pants away from the cut.

"No." Melissa said looking up at him for a brief moment then looked over at Lex. "Lex, the first aid kit." She said holding her hand out.

He walked over and handed it to her but kept his distance. He didn't mean to be scared but after what he saw it was pure instinct to him. The most violence he'd seen was on cartoons when the super hero saves the day, never anything in real life, and never anything like that. Lex looked up to the older kids, all of them, and seeing them turn against each other like that was traumatizing. He looked up at Jackson then walked over to the tent and dragged the other bin inside. Jackson frowned and looked down at the ground. He winced as Melissa cleaned the cut and bandaged it. She wrapped it in an ace bandage to be sure that there was pressure on it. She began putting everything up when Jackson finally looked up at her. He bottom eye lid and about two centimeters under it was purple along with the brim on of nose.

"How'd you hurt your leg?" Melissa asked looking up at him.

"I fell on a rock…" He said glancing around camp.

Between Lex not wanting to be around him and Melissa being hurt he was feeling worse and worse by the second. He reached towards her but Melissa flinched and moved her head away. She didn't mean to, it was a natural reaction for her. She looked up at him and could see the guilt and sadness in his eyes. She frowned and looked down at the ground afraid that she would begin crying. Jackson sighed and looked down at the sand.

"Are you scared of me?" Jackson said looking up at her.

"Don't be ridicules; it's just a little sore." She said looking over at him.

"Who hit you? And don't lie and say you just fell or that you don't remember just because you think it'll make me feel better." Jackson said staring at her.

Melissa sat there for a moment staring at the ground. "I better go help Lex." She said looking up at him. "Stay off your leg."

Melissa stood up and walked into the tent. When she walked in he was sitting on his sleeping bag with his knees pulled to his chest. She looked over and the bin was sitting beside the other two. She frowned and sat down beside him. He looked over at her for a brief moment before putting his chin back on his knees and staring at the tent flap. Melissa sighed and crossed her legs in front of her before lifting him up and putting him on her lap. She hugged him and laid her chin on his shoulder.

"I don't mean to be scared, but…" He looked down and shrugged. "I can't help it."

"It's ok; it's natural for you to be scared." Melissa said looking over at him the best she could.

"What about you? Are you scared?"

"Sometimes…but not of anyone here…What happened earlier was an accident." Melissa tried to explain.

"Was it? They meant to fight…maybe they didn't mean for you to get hurt but they meant to hurt each other…if we can't stop hurting each other then were never going to survive this." Lex said staring at the tent floor

"Were going to survive Lex…" Melissa said trying to find some proof to her statement.

"Not if we keep going the way we are." Lex stood up and turned to look at her. "We may survive what ever this island decides the throw at us but we'll never survive each other." Before Melissa could say anything Lex walked outside. "Nathan! Eric!"

Melissa narrowed her eyes and went outside. Eric was laying on the sand by the tree line and Nathan was sitting beside Jackson. But there was no sign of Taylor or Daley anywhere.

"Has Daley made it back yet?" Nathan asked looking over at Melissa.

"Not yet." Melissa said walking over to them. "The storm is getting closer we don't have enough time to go out and look for both of them."

"Or enough daylight!" Eric said finally noticing he wasn't the only one around.

Everyone glared at him including Lex. "We can't leave them out there!" Lex argued

"We can't get stuck out there either Lex." Nathan explained.

"They might be hurt!" Lex yelled.

"We're not going to be able to help them by getting lost our selves." Melissa said softly.

Tears formed in Lex's eyes as he glared at everyone. He sighed and rushed back into the tent. Everyone turned and looked at the tree line hoping Daley and Taylor would come walking out any moment. But the only movement in the trees was the wind blowing. The wind was picking up speed more and more by the second and it was beginning to drizzle. _Where are they? _Everyone thought in dread.


	7. Chapter 7: The storm

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the charters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun. _

**A/N: **_I was going to wait a couple days before posting this but I got it finished and decided to go ahead a post it tonight. Originally this wasn't going to be a song fic chapter but after I got through with it the song popped into my head and it seemed to match the chapter pretty good so I added it in. I hope you guys like it.

* * *

_

**Chapter Seven: The Storm**

**The Veronicas- Heavily Broken **

Taylor sat down on the ground not wanting to make the mistake of sitting on a rock again. She was still wearing the clothes she was wearing the day before but they were ripped and had blood on them. The back of her tank top was covered in blood and sticking to her back. It felt disgusting but the pain of her injuries was enough to take her mind off how her clothes felt. Her ankle was swollen and completely bruised. She would be lucky if it wasn't broken. She looked around to make sure no one was around and instantly felt like an idiot. Of course no one was around she was in the middle of the jungle. She shook her head and gently slipped her tank top off. She winced and tears filled her eyes. She had on a bright pink bikini top so it was no big deal but she still felt awkward being in the middle of no where without a shirt on. She was going to throw the shirt to the side but then decided against it.

She might not be able to wear it anymore but if she got a big cut she would be able to use the shirt as a bandage until she got back to camp. Her throat felt like sand paper, she ran out of water almost an hour ago. The pain had eased some but not by much. She jumped and squealed as another loud crash of thunder echoed through out the forest. She frowned and looked down at her hands. She'd never felt as discouraged and depressed as she did that moment. She was going to be stuck in this god awful storm in the middle of nowhere, alone, and without any type of shelter to protect her from the storm. She grabbed the closest stick to her and examined it. It was long enough to use as a cane and it seemed strong enough. She pushed her self up and slowly made her way down the hill. She winced with every step, even if some of the weight was off her foot it still hurt even with the slightest bit of pressure.

_Everyday I sit here waiting  
Everyday just seems so long  
And now I've had enough of all the hating  
Do we even care, it's so unfair  
Any day it'll all be over  
Everyday there's nothing new  
And now I just try to find some hope  
To try and hold onto  
But it starts again  
It'll never end_

She groaned when she seen a large rock at the bottom of the hill. She remembered getting up it pretty easily coming up but coming up she wasn't scraped, cut, bruised, thirty, sore, and she had both legs. She sighed and slowly made her way closer to the rock. She stopped suddenly and narrowed her eyes when she seen a hand over the edge. She carefully made her way a little closer trying to be quiet just in case it was some psycho out to kill her. She gasped when she seen was close enough to put a face to the hand. It was Daley and from the looks of it she wasn't doing well. Taylor dropped her make shift cane and walked down the hill as fast as she could. She about fell off the rock too but she was able to catch her self on a near by tree,

"Daley…Are you ok?" Daley didn't move. "Come on Daley…I learned my lesson!" She said knowing that Daley wasn't going to get up.

She winced as she walked to the edge of the rock. She knelt down and put one hand on the rock. She hopped of being sure to only land on her good foot. Once she got her balance back she quickly limped over to Daley. She got down on her knees beside her and looked over her. Her chest was moving, that was a good sign. At least she was still alive. She put her hand on her shoulder and shook her a little.

"Daley, come on wake up…" Daley didn't even move.

Taylor put her finger on Daley's chin and turned her head towards her. She screamed and fell backwards when she seen the large cut on the side of Daley's head right by her hair line. It was still bleeding, Taylor quickly looked around and seen Daley's pack not to far from where she was laying. She quickly grabbed it and quickly opened it. She put the two bottles of water beside her and grabbed the gauze and tape from her pack. She didn't have any thing to clean it out with so she grabbed on of the bottles of water and quickly unscrewed the cap. She slowly poured some water over it and used her top to dry off the area around the cut before she quickly put the gauze over it. She held it for a moment before she tore some tape and taped the gauze down. She took a long chug from the water before putting the cap back on.

_I'm heavily broken  
And I don't know what to do  
Can't you see that I'm choking  
And I can't even move  
When there's nothing left to say  
What can you do  
I'm heavily broken  
And there's nothing I can do_

She looked through the rest of the pack pulling out everything that was in it. Other than the water, a flash light and the first aid supplies there was the big piece of plastic from the other tent that got destroyed. Taylor narrowed her eyes and looked over at Daley. _I wonder why she had this…_ She sat it down beside her and put both her hands on Daley's shoulders. She shook her a bit then a little harder.

"Come on Daley, you have to wake up, I can't do this alone." She said as she began crying again. "Please Day…Wake up…"

She felt more then defeated she felt like everything was tumbling down on top of her. She felt something fall on her head. She touched the top of her head and something hit her hand this time. She pulled her hand down and her eyes widened when she seen that it was rain.

"Oh god…" She said looking around.

There was no way she would be able to drag Daley back to camp in her condition. She crawled over the ledge and pulled her self up. She looked around for any sign that she was any closer to camp. If she was she would be able to rush back and get help but there was nothing. All she could see was plants and trees. Lighting flashed brightly causing her to flinch. She needed to find some kind of shelter close by so she could pull Daley to it. Maybe if the sat underneath a tree. _Wait…your not suppose to sit under a tree during a thunder storm…or was it that you were suppose to…or was it a ditch…Why wasn't I a girl scout? _She thought getting aggravated with her self; another loud crash of thunder followed by a bright flash of lighting. _I need to hurry! _She thought looking around. She smiled when the tent caught her eye. She limped around picking up all the rocks she could carry and putting them on top of the ledge.

She ignored the pain the best she could knowing that hers and Daley's life depended on her. Once she was sure she had enough she began gathering sticks some large and others small. She made sure where ever she went that she could see Daley from where she was. She hurried over the best she could and laid the large pile of sticks beside the rocks then headed to get some large leaves that looked almost plastic. Sort of like the leaves on the fake plants in the front office at school. She picked as many as she could off of the bushes before returning back to Daley. She laid them down on the rock and checked to make sure Daley was still breathing before heading out and gathering some more. By the time she came back the wind was beginning to get strong enough to make it through the trees and the rain was beginning to pick up.

_Almost giving up on trying  
Almost heading for a fall  
And now my mind is screaming out  
I've gotta keep on fighting  
But then again  
It doesn't end  
_

She grabbed the large piece of plastic from their old tent and walked over to the rock ledge. She put one end of the tent on it and lined it with the heaviest rocks. She grabbed the rest of the rocks and laid them on the ground. She pulled the tent straight and lined the rocks up on the bottom as well. She limped over to Daley and tried to drag her inside but she fell down in pain. She looked back at the make shift shelter she built then at Daley. They were only a few feet away. She put her arms under hers and locked them across her chest. She used her one good leg to push them over towards the shelter it too a while but she finally got her there. One she had her laying parallel to the shelter she climbed to the other side of her and got down on her knees and shoved Daley under the shelter. Her entire body wrenched in pain but she needed to get this done. She crawled over to the water and Daley's pack, the water, the first aid supplies and the flash light.

She untied Jackson's sweat shirt and balled it up. She gently lifted Daley's head up and put the shirt under it. She stuck all the supplies they had inside the shelter beside her before using the rock again to pull her self up. _Ok almost done. _She thought wincing as pain shot threw her body. She limped over and picked up a small rock then back over to the shelter. She grabbed the sticks and hammered them into the ground two feet apart. Once she was done with the one side she covered it with the leaves taping them to the sticks with the tape from Daley's pack. Once she was done with that side she went to the other and began to hammer the sticks into the ground. The rain was beginning to pour down now. She was freezing, each time the rain hit her every cut or scrap she had felt like someone had poured alcohol on them. The sharp pains and aches were constant now and between the rain, her own tears, and the sun completely disappearing she could barley see anything.

_I'm heavily broken  
And I don't know what to do  
Can't you see that I'm choking  
And I can't even move  
When there's nothing left to say  
What can you do?  
I'm heavily broken  
_

Once she got the last stick up she grabbed the leaves and dragged quickly dunked in side. She quickly stacked the leaves up against the sticks on the outside taping them the best she could. Once she was finished she grabbed the flashlight and turned it on and looked over at Daley to make sure she was ok. She was shivering uncontrollably and her teeth were chattering, she checked to make sure she had done everything she could for Daley. She felt completely helpless and alone. She was glad the others made her help build the shelter for the fire. If not her and Daley would both be out in the rain. The pain was unbearable; each movement she made seemed to only make the pain multiply by ten. She'd never felt so miserable or as cold. She propped her leg up in front of her and left the hurt one laying flat on the ground. She hugged her leg and laid her head down on her knee. She broke down completely for the first time. She was sobbing so hard that she began coughing because she couldn't catch her breath.

_Feels like I'm drowning  
I'm screaming for air  
(Screaming for air)  
Louder I'm crying  
And you don't even care_

**

* * *

**Melissa sat with her back against the bins and her legs stretched out in front on her. Lex was sleeping beside her with his head on her lap and his arm wrapped around her legs. She left her hand sitting on his back trying to comfort him as much as possible. Eric was asleep against the opposite side of the tent. Nathan had fallen asleep a couple inches away from him thirty minutes earlier. He tried staying up but between the exhaustion from working, and searching the hill was too much for him to handle. Jackson was sitting against the back wall of the tent writing something down on a piece of paper with a stick that he carved the top to a point the burned it in the fire. He made at least two for everybody while they were all waiting for Taylor and Daley. 

The only light they had to see by was the light coming from the battery powered lantern and the bright flashes of lighting coming from outside. Melissa stared down at the tent floor thinking of Taylor and Daley. Anything could have happened to them, and if they weren't seriously hurt they were stuck out in this storm with no shelter. Melissa was miserable her nose and eye was hurting and the image that had been stuck in her mind for the last few weeks had changed. Instead of one mound of dirt there were two and Daley and Taylor were both missing from the group. Jackson crawled over to her and sat down beside her. She looked over at him for a moment before looking back at the tent floor.

"I'm sorry Mel, I….I didn't mean for you to get hurt especially by me…" Jackson said looking down at his hands.

_I'm heavily broken  
And I don't know what to do  
Can't you see that I'm choking  
And I can't even move  
(What can I do)  
When there's nothing left to say  
What can you do  
I'm heavily broken_

Melissa looked over at him and faintly smiled. "I know Jackson; it's not that…I'm just worried about Taylor and Daley." She said looking down at Lex. "What if they're hurt? Or… worse…" Melissa's eyes began to burn as tears fought to the surface. "We left them alone out there…we could have done something instead of sitting around waiting for them to come back…" Melissa said letting out a small sob.

Jackson sighed and looked over at her. "Mel, there was nothing we could do without all of us getting stuck out there and getting lost. Daley is smart once she found out that she wouldn't make it back to camp in time she probably found a cave or something to ride the storm out in. They are both a lot stronger than we give them credit for. They know what to do out there, they've been living with the same conditions for the last four weeks…both of them know enough to keep their selves safe."

Melissa looked up at him. "How do you know?" She said whipping the tears from her cheeks, more quickly replaced them.

"Because I know them, Taylor may not be the most wilderness friendly but she knows how to take care of her self so does Daley, they've been doing it all this time."

Melissa slowly nodded and looked back down at her hands. Jackson frowned and put his arm around her pulling her close to him. Melissa wrapped her arm around him and laid her head on his shoulder, He laid his head on top of hers and rubbed her shoulder with his hand. Melissa found some comfort in it but she still couldn't get the image of them laying somewhere out in the forest unconscious and not breathing. Jackson put his hand on the arm that she had wrapped around him.

"Everything will be ok…" He said softly wishing he believed it his self.

_I'm heavily broken  
And I don't know what to do  
Can't you see that I'm choking  
And I can't even move  
When there's nothing left to say  
What can you do  
I'm heavily broken _

_And there's nothing I can do_

_And there's nothing I can do_


	8. Chapter 8: Guilty

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the charters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun. _

**A/N: **_Sorry for the delay, I had some trouble coming up with this chapter and rearranging the plotline a bit. Thanks_ Punette_101 for the suggestion! As always I hope you guys enjoy reading it and let me know what you think.

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_

**Chapter Eight: Guilty**

Nathan groaned as he sat up and looked around the tent. It was unusually empty leaving a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. He hated all of them being crowded in one little tent but not having everyone there was a lot worse that having no room to move. He could see the dim sun light shinning in through the tent. He seen Jackson, Eric and Lex but where was Melissa. Nathan lowered his eyes brows and grabbed the closest lantern to him and turned it on to make sure he wasn't mistaken. He turned it off and quickly stood up. He stepped outside the tent and quickly looked around. She wasn't anywhere around camp. He cupped his hands around his mouth.

"MELISSA!" He yelled hoping she was just using the bathroom or gathering food.

Lex and Jackson both stepped out of the tent groggy from the sudden wake up. They both looked around then at Nathan confused. Nathan didn't even notice them he was too busy looking around for Melissa _She wouldn't go out alone would she? At home no way but here maybe… _he thought as he took off running towards the fire pit. Lex looked up at Jackson and Jackson shrugged. They both took off running following him. They both stopped about running into Nathan. When they didn't see Melissa anywhere they both got why Nathan looked so panicked.

"She wouldn't…would she?" Lex asked looking up at the two older boys.

Jackson shrugged and looked down at Lex. He was shocked that the younger boy didn't take off running and hide behind Nathan. It had been the first time that he'd been anywhere near him since the fight. Nathan looked at both of them before sighing and looking around. He couldn't believe that Melissa would take off without letting any of them know especially when they already had two people from the group missing. He knew she had to go looking for them but he couldn't think of why she would leave without telling them and why she wouldn't wait for them to help knowing it was a risk that she would get lost of hurt her self. It wasn't like Melissa to take off without thinking of these things first. She always thought everything through even with the smallest decisions. She obviously would have seen that this was not a good idea at the beginning. He cupped his hands over his mouth again.

"MELISSA!" He yelled as loud as his voice would let him.

They all listened for a response expecting Melissa to come stumbling out of the forest with her arms full of fruit or fire wood asking why they were panicking but something told them that wasn't going to happen. Nathan looked down at the ground, put his hands on his hips and shook his head. He couldn't believe that the Mel he knew would do something like this even if she thought she could find them she wouldn't have left without telling someone or leaving a note at least not the Mel he knew back home. The person she was then and the person she was now was two completely different people. She was still the sweet, considerate, and loving girl but something inside her had changed, something inside of all of them had changed in the last few weeks. None of them were the same people that crash landed on this island just four week before. Even Eric had changed even if it was for the worse.

"We have to go find her…" Nathan said finally looking over at Jackson.

"And the others." Lex added looking up at both of them. "They've been out there all night through the storm we have to find them. They could be hurt or sick or."

"Let's just hope they're all together." Jackson said interrupting Lex before he said what they all had in the back of their minds.

Nathan and Lex both nodded looking over at him. They all headed back to the tent to change and gather up their gear knowing that at least one if not all of them would be hurt. The thought of one of them being hurt was almost too much for any of them to handle but they knew that thinking none of them got hurt after being out there all this time was naive. Nathan nudged Eric with his foot, when he didn't move he did it a little harder and harder until finally Eric shot up.

"What?!" Eric snapped glaring up at Nathan through one eye.

"Melissa went after the others we have to go find them now!" Nathan said.

He almost completely forgot about the fight. He expected him to protest and complain like he always did but he just groaned and sat up the rest of the way. He glared at Jackson but Jackson didn't seem to notice. He stood up and grabbed some clothes and changed. He looked around at the others who were already packing up their backpacks. He lowered his eye brows and looked around at everyone.

"We need to eat before we leave. To keep up our strength or what not." Everyone looked over at Eric.

None of them believed that he cared about any of them having any strength but that didn't change the fact that he was right. They all needed to eat before leaving or they'll be worthless to the others when they found them. Nathan nodded and walked over to the food bin.

"We need to take some food and water for the others too." Nathan said handing out some fruit to everyone making sure Lex got a little more then everyone else.

"And Jackson needs to change that bandage to keep his leg from getting infected." Lex added looking over at Jackson. "I'll help…" Lex said handing a bottle of water to everyone.

He and Melissa filled almost all of the bottles they had before the storm hit the island. Nathan and Jackson were both worried about taking Lex with them but neither of them was brave enough to leave him at camp by his self. He would probably wonder off after they left to look for his sister it was better for him to be with them than to be on his own. After breakfast Eric and Nathan walked outside with the packs to make sure everything they needed was in them Lex sighed and walked over and sat down beside Jackson's legs. He grabbed some clean bandages, some antibiotic ointment and some clean bottled water and sat it down beside him.

"It's ok Lex, I can do it." He said looking over at him.

Lex nodded and stood up he walked over to the tent flap then looked back at Jackson. He stood there for a moment before walking back over to Jackson and sitting on his knees beside him. He was still scared of both him and Eric but he couldn't ignore everything that Jackson done before the fight. Plus he heard what he said to Melissa the night before even thought both of them thought he was asleep. Jackson began taking the ace bandage off his leg and looked over at Lex.

"Listen Lex, I'm sorry about what happened yesterday…I'm sorry that you had to see it. I didn't mean to lose it like I did and I defiantly didn't mean for anyone to get hurt…well other than me and Eric obviously…" He said looking back down at his leg.

Lex nodded and looked up at him. "I know…" Lex said with a sigh. "I've known it since yesterday…You're a good guy, everything you've done since we got here had proved that. I wasn't scared that you were going to hurt me…I know better than that…I was just scared in general…I've never seen a fight before…" Lex said looking over at him.

Jackson smiled and nodded. "Thanks Lex that means a lot." He said putting the ace bandage back around his leg.

He threw the old bandages it the garbage bin then stood up. He helped Lex up then they both walked outside. Nathan and Eric were both standing a few feet from the tent with their packs on their backs. Nathan picked up Jackson's and handed it to him. Lex picked his up and put it on his back then looked around at everyone.

"Were not coming back without them…" He said looking for everyone's approval.

One by one everyone nodded. Jackson grabbed one of the notebooks and a pencil and wrote a note just in case anyone came back. Once they were at the fire pit and taped the note to a piece of bamboo then suck it in the ground. He stick the last roll of tape from the first aid kit in his pack and looked around at everyone.

"Lets go…" He said walking towards the forest.

Lex trailing close behind him, then Nathan, and Eric.

_We've come to look for you,_

_Don't go anywhere. _

_We'll be back soon enough._

_Jackson, Lex, Nathan and Eric…_

**

* * *

**Daley's eyes slowly fluttered open; she groaned from the throbbing headache and the aches and pains surging through her body. She could hear water hitting the plastic above her but it didn't seem like rain more like water falling off the trees. Her vision was a little burry but she could see well enough to tell she wasn't back at camp. She blinked a few times until her vision returned to normal. She winced as she pushed her self up into the sitting position and looked around. Her mouth dropped when she seen Taylor laying on her side facing her. She only had a pair of blue jean shorts and her pink bikini top. She was really pale, and from the looks of it hurt really bad. She was covered with scrapes cuts and bruises. Her ankle was swollen three times it's size and was covered with a dark purple and blue bruise from her toes to five inches above her ankle. Tears formed in Daley's eyes and quickly began to stream down her face. She fought through the pain of her own injuries and quickly crawled over to her. She put her fingers on her neck to feel for a pulse. It was strong and as far as she could tell normal. 

"Oh my god Taylor! Come on wake up, please wake up?" Daley begged through the tears. She went to touch her shoulder but jerked her hand back not wanting to cause her anymore pain. "Taylor, please wake up?" She said almost screaming but Taylor didn't budge.

She reached over her to grab the flash light but suddenly froze when she seen her back. She quickly grabbed the flashlight and turned it on shining it on her back. She instantly began to sob. Her back looked horrible and it the deep cuts and scrapes on it wasn't bad enough it looked infected. She was beginning to feel sick to her stomach just by looking at it. She backed up and shined the flash light in her face hoping it would wake her up.

"Come on Taylor…Wake up…" She said her voice barley above a whisper. "Please…"

Daley put her wrist to Taylor's forehead. She wasn't running a fever if anything her temperature was below normal. She calmed her self down and grabbed all the supplies she brought with her. It wasn't much, some gauze, tape and one of the two ace bandages they had along with some antibiotic ointment. It wasn't enough to cover all her wounds or even half of them but at least she could get most of the worse ones covered and cleaned. She took a long drink from one of the bottles of water before she sat it down beside her leaving it open so she could use it to clean out at least most of the cuts. Hopefully the pain would help wake her up, she hated the thought of hurting her but her wounds needed to be clean and if it hurt enough to wake her up then that would be great.

**

* * *

**Melissa struggled up the hill resisting the urge to fall to her knees. Her legs ached and cramped more and more each step she took. She knew it would be hard to get up the hill but she didn't know it would be that hard. She gasped for air but she continued to force her self up the hill. She left camp an hour ago while everyone was asleep. She didn't do it to be the hero or so she would fell better about her self. She couldn't sleep at all last night and the more she laid there the more she thought about all the could bes. By the time the sun came up she was driving her self crazy. She looked around and leaned against a tree long enough to take a drink of water before heading back up the hill. All the thoughts from the night before still lingered in her mind. The storm from the night before made it a lot harder to get up the hill. It was slippery and muddy; plus the wind had blown tree limbs, small weak bushes, veins, and anything else that was loose enough for it to grab making it harder to navigate through it. 

She suddenly froze when she seen something at the top of the hill, something that was obviously made by humans. She smiled excitedly and rushed up the hill as fast as her leg would allow. Five minutes later she stopped in front of a make shift tent. She was gasping for air worse than before, her chest felt like it was going to cave in and her ribs aches with every move she made but at least she made it there. She walked over to the side and pulled one of the leaves from its place.

"Daley! Taylor!" She said looking side.

"Melissa!" Daley said looking up from Taylor. "Get in here I need your help!"

The sound of Daley's voice made Melissa want to panic but she kept her self calm and began pulling the leaves from the sticks. Taylor slowly came into view and she seen why Daley sounded so upset. She quickly dunked inside and got on her knees beside her.

"What happened to her?" Melissa asked looking at Daley. "What happened to you?"

Daley looked up at her. "What do you mean what happened to me?"

"Your head…it's bandaged up…" Melissa said looking at her confused.

Daley narrowed her eyes and reached up to her forehead. She winced when she put the slightest bit of pressure on it. She looked down at Taylor for a moment before looking over at Melissa.

"I don't know, I don't remember but I know she needs help. I can't get her to wake up; where are the others?"

"They're all back at camp, I couldn't sleep so I decided to head off early." Melissa said trying to figure out what to do to help Taylor.

"We're going to need the guys to help get her back to camp. We won't be able to do it on our own." Daley said grabbing the sweatshirt that was under her head and propping Taylor's head up on it. "I'll stay here with her, you go and try to find them hopefully they're still back at camp…" Daley said brushing the hair from Taylor's face.

Melissa nodded and looked at Taylor one last time before standing up. She ran down the hill as fast as she could without falling and rolling down the rest of the way. She stopped and looked around at her surroundings trying to figure out if she was going the right way. She lowered her eyes brows and glanced at the trees. _This way_ She thought as she began running down the hill heading towards the right. Her roof got caught on a root and she tripped. She tried to stop her self from hitting the ground with her hands but the moment her right hand hit the ground a sharp intense pain shot up her arm. She instinctively jerked her arm back towards her leaving nothing to stop her from rolling down the hill. She tried to stop her self with her other hand by grabbing at things on the ground but alls it did was get her other hand scraped and cut up. With a loud thud she came to stop hitting her back and head against a large tree.


	9. Chapter 9: Returning Home

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the characters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun._

**A/N:** _I have at least one more chapter planned maybe two. So the story is coming to an end but I promise I will do everything I can to keep it entertaining for you. Thanks for reading, and reviewing. Let me know what you think. __

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_

**Chapter Nine: Returning Home. **

Jackson, Nathan, Eric, and Lex all forced their selves up the hill fighting through the debris from the storm. It was a lot harder to walk through then the day before especially with the entire hill being muddy. Jackson held onto Lex's hand tightly to keep him from tripping and falling. None of them said much to each other, everyone was either mad at each other or too lost in their own thoughts to talk. Lex on the other hand hated the silence; it left to much room for his mind to wonder back and forth between all the possibilities. His legs hurt more then he ever thought possible and his legs were covered in scratches from having to walk through thorn bushes. He had to walk slower and slower but he refused to stop. Daley wouldn't have stopped if he was out there and he wasn't going to stop and rest until he found everyone and they were all safe.

Jackson stopped and looked ahead of them. It looked like it was worse than what they'd been walking through for the last thirty minutes. He sighed and looked down at Lex, there was no way he could walk through it. Nathan and Eric both stopped and stared at him trying to figure out why he had stopped. Eric scoffed and rolled his eyes as he shook his head but didn't say anything to him. He knew if they got into a fight at the top of the hill he would end up being the one tumbling down it.

"Let's take a break…" Jackson said finally looking at the others as he took his back pack off his back.

Nathan and Eric both nodded and took their back packs off and sat them down on the ground. Jackson waited a moment before taking his back pack off and laying it on the ground as well. He knelt down and got one of the bottles of water out and handed it to Lex. He gave him a slight smile before standing up and walking over to a fallen tree and sat down on it. Nathan sat down beside him then Eric beside Nathan. Lex took a long drink of the water then handed the bottle back to Jackson. He tried to get up on the tree but he was too short to jump up. Jackson smiled and handed the bottle to Nathan before getting off the tree and picking Lex up. He sat him down beside Nathan then sat down beside him.

"Thanks." Lex said looking over at him. "Do you think Melissa will find Daley and Taylor?" Lex asked no one in particular.

"If she don't we will." Nathan said putting his hand on his back and giving him a slight smile.

"What if we can't?" Lex said looking down at the ground.

"We won't give up." Eric said jumping down off the tree.

He picked up his back pack and slipped it on his back. Nathan and Jackson both narrowed their eyes. He was the first person to always give up on everything especially when it came to actually having to work. They both jumped down and watched Eric head up the hill. Jackson shook his head and helped Lex down then they all picked up their back packs and followed him up. Nathan and Jackson both held on to Lex's hand to be sure that he didn't fall. They walked for ten minutes before Eric suddenly stopped almost causing Jackson, Nathan, and Lex to walk into him. Nathan sighed and looked at him.

"What is it Eric?" Nathan said somewhat annoyed.

"That!" Eric said pointing up the hill.

Everyone looked where Eric was pointing but no one seen what he was talking about at first until it moved. It was a pair of legs sticking out from behind a large tree. No one could tell who it was but all of them had the worst racing through their minds. Lex jerked his hands away from Nathan and Jackson and ran as fast as he could up the hill. He tripped and fell on his hands and knees but he quickly got up and continued running. Nathan and Jackson ran after him then finally Eric got enough courage up to follow them.

"Day!" Lex screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Lex wait!" Jackson yelled.

"We don't know who it is yet!" Nathan yelled almost tripping over a root.

"Who else would it be?" Eric mumbled under his breath.

Tears streamed down Lex's face the more he thought about his sister laying behind the tree hurt beyond what they could help. He turned quickly and suddenly stopped when he got to the tree. He had a brief moment of relief followed fear and dread. It wasn't his sister but it was still someone he knew and loved. Jackson and Nathan both stopped behind him and leaned forward putting their hands on their knees gasping for air. Then Eric ran up behind them stopping just a couple inches short of running into them. Jackson and Nathan both saw who is was and quickly stood up. Jackson quickly stepped around Lex and knelt down beside Melissa. He put two if his fingers on her neck and felt for a pulse.

"Is she alright?" Lex blurted out.

"She's alive…" Jackson said looking back at the others.

Jackson sighed and looked back at Melissa. She didn't seem to be too hurt, a few bump and bruises and possibly a broken wrist but other that that she seemed completely fine…at least on the outside. There was no way to tell if she had any internal injuries, and even if there was they didn't have any doctors who could go in and fix it. They were on their own. Jackson put his hand on her shoulder and leaned down near her.

"Melissa…Melissa wake up…" He said softly in her ear. "Mel…"

A slight moan escaped Melissa's lips and her eyes slowly began to open. Jackson sighed in relief and sat up. The others sighed in relief as well when they seen Melissa coming to. Melissa groaned and reached up putting her hand on the side of her head. Her other hand was a little swollen and bruised. It hurt to move it so she left it laying against her chest. Her other hand had a few cuts on it but it didn't hurt as bad as her wrist. She began pushing her self up with her elbow. Jackson put his hand on her shoulder and helped her sit up. She leaned against the tree and looked around at everyone. She couldn't remember much at first, everything just seemed to be blended together and it was hard for her to sort through them. She thought about it for a moment trying to think of everything that happened. After a few moments she slowly began to sort through the mush.

Jackson looked her in her eyes trying to see if she could focus. "Are you alright?"

Melissa slowly nodded. "Yeah I think so…I think I broke my wrist though…" She said leaning her head against the tree.

"I think you did too." Jackson said looking down at her wrist.

Melissa's mouth dropped when she remembered why she had fallen in the first place. She couldn't believe she forgot about Daley and Taylor even if it was for only a minute or so. Jackson, Eric, Nathan, and Lex all stared at her wondering what was going through her mind.

"What's wrong?" Jackson asked finally.

"Daley and Taylor…They're up there." Melissa said pointing up the hill with her good hand. "Taylor is hurt really bad…Daley couldn't even get her to wake up. You guys have to go help them…" Melissa said looking at each of their faces one by one.

"You need help too…" Jackson said looking over at Eric and Nathan.

Nathan was obviously the strongest one of the two and if what Melissa said was even half true they would need all the strength they had. He hesitated to suggest that Eric take Melissa back to camp while him and Nathan go get Daley and Taylor but they didn't have time to argue over who was going to go. They didn't have time to get into a fight either. He sighed and stood up trying to think of a way to get Eric to help Melissa back to camp.

"Me and Nathan are the strongest so were going to have to be the ones to go help Taylor and Daley, Eric can you help Melissa back to camp while we go help them?" Jackson said expecting Eric to flip out again.

Eric nodded. "Sure…"

Jackson lowered his eyes brows for a moment before shaking his head. They didn't have time to worry about psychology right now. He sighed and looked down at Lex. He had already seen enough to last him a life time he wasn't going to let him see anything else if he could help it. He knelt down in front of him Lex already knew what was going to happen. It happened every time something went terribly wrong. He was sent to his room or just away. Jackson gave him a slight smile and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Lex, I need you to go with Eric and Melissa…"

"No! She's my sister I'm going with you guys!" Lex demanded.

"I know you're worried about her but if you get hurt we won't be able to help Daley or Taylor…please buddy, I promise me and Nathan will take care of her."

Lex looked down at the ground and slowly nodded. He didn't want to go but he didn't have much of a choice if her argued it just meant the more time they spent not helping Daley and Taylor. Jackson gave him a reassuring smile and stood up. He walked over to Melissa and knelt down beside her.

"Put your arm around my neck…"

Melissa nodded and put her arm around Jackson's neck. Jackson put his arm around her waist and helped her up. He waited for a couple of seconds for her to gain her balance before he looked over at Eric. Without Jackson saying anything Eric walked over to her. Jackson slowly moved away from her but kept a hold of her arm to be sure she didn't fall. Eric put his arm around her waist and Melissa put her arm around his neck.

"Don't let Lex out of your sight." Jackson said backing up beside Nathan.

Eric nodded and began to slowly help Melissa down the hill. She was limping a little but it was mainly because of the bruises that covered her legs made her muscles ache. After watching them for a few moments Nathan and Jackson both turned and began running up the hill toward where Melissa pointed. They were both scared to see what they looked like even if neither of them were willing to show it. They tripped over roots and rocks every now and then but they were able to catch their balance before they hit the ground. Jackson's leg hurt more then he could stand but he pushed the pain out of his mind and concentrated on why they were running. It helped a bit but he still felt like his leg was going to give out of him with every step.

It seemed like they were never going to get to them. The hill got steeper and steeper and the forest got thicker and thicker. There was still no sign of Daley and Taylor; they weren't even sure what they should be looking for. Melissa only told them they were up here somewhere. They both stopped gasping for air and looked around. Neither of them could see any sign of the girls or anyone for that matter. It seemed to be getting a little thinner as they went up but not by much and not enough for them to see any further then ten feet into the forest in front of them. There was no way they would be able to get Daley and Taylor through this. After a few moments they continued to jog through the forest trying their best to keep from loosing their breath as fast.

Jackson suddenly stopped and grabbed Nathan's arm making him stop as well. Before Nathan could ask Jackson pointed at something at the top of the hill. It looked like a sheet of plastic or something. Nathan narrowed his eyes and took a couple steps towards it.

"What is that?" Nathan asked looking back at Jackson.

Jackson shrugged and walked towards it. "What ever it is, it's human made."

They both jogged towards it and within a minute they were there. Jackson and Nathan both ran over to the side of it and looked through the gap between the leaves that Melissa had pulled down earlier. Both their eyes widened when the seen Taylor lying on the ground and Daley sitting on her knees beside her holding her hand. Jackson and Nathan both finished ripping down the rest of the leaves and sticks. Daley looked up at them and smiled bigger than she had the whole time she'd been on the island. Jackson and Nathan both winced at the sight of Taylor's back and it just got worse the more they looked her over.

"What happened to her?" Jackson asked looking up at Daley.

"I don't know…I woke up this morning and she was like this, I can't get her to wake up." Daley said looking down at her worriedly. "We have to get her back to camp…"

"Can you walk?" Jackson said looking at Daley.

Daley nodded. "Yeah I'm fine…but she wont be unless we get her back to camp" Daley said looking at both boys.

"Me and Nathan will take turns carrying her down the hill you just make sure we don't trip." Jackson said looking down at Taylor.

Nathan and Daley both nodded in agreement. "It's going to take both of us to pick her up." Nathan said as he stood up and got on the other side of Taylor beside Daley.

Jackson put his arms under her back and knees. Nathan put her arm around his neck to make it a little easier to carry her before he put his arms on top of Jackson's. They both slowly picked her up and once they were out from under the shelter they stood straight up. Once Jackson had Taylor, Daley got out from under the shelter carrying what was left of the bottle of water and the empty bottle. She grabbed Jackson's hoody and he back pack then began walking down the hill.

"Come on guys we have to hurry…" Daley said looking back at them.

Nathan and Jackson both followed her. Nathan stayed back with Jackson to make sure he didn't trip with Taylor while Daley walked ahead of them cleaning a path the best and as fast as she could. She couldn't stop her hands from shaking. It wasn't that she was cold she was just worried and nervous. Taylor was out here because of her and even after everything she said to her and how hurt she was Taylor still pulled her inside the shelter. It had to be her, no one else was around.

**

* * *

**Eric helped Melissa over to one of the logs beside the fire and helped her sit down. Melissa smiled gratefully up at him but didn't say anything. She had been through too much in the last few days to talk. All she wanted to do was crawl inside a hole and hide from the world but even if that was possible she still needed to be there for the others. They were the only reason she hadn't given up hope completely. Eric sat down beside her and sighed and looked around the fire pit. 

"I'll be right back!" Lex said rushing off towards his garden.

Eric narrowed his eyes. "Does he really think now is the perfect time to go off and water his garden?" Eric said looking over at Melissa.

Melissa laughed and shrugged. Eric always made her laugh even in the most horrible and unbearable times. After a few minutes Lex returned with a stick, some braided vines and some cloth that obviously came from someone's t-shirt. Eric and Melissa both narrowed their eyes at him out of confusion. After a moment Lex noticed it and sat down on his knees in front of them.

"I had planed on making a signal fire on the beach, big enough for us to keep burning all the time and with a trench around it so the ocean wouldn't put it out, I had a couple extra shirts that I was going to make torches out of so that if we did see rescue we could light them and wave them around so they would know we needed help…." He explained

"Alright Lex that all sounds great, it really does." Eric said trying to help him believe that he wasn't just trying to cut him off. "But we don't have all day so get to the point please?"

"Oh right!" Lex said looking up at Melissa. "Well all this stuff could also be used to stable you wrist so that it can heal back correctly that way they won't have to re-break it when we get rescued and so that it doesn't hurt as much."

Melissa and Eric both gave him a slight smile. "That's great Lex, will it work?" Melissa asked looking at everything.

"Yeah, as long as we keep it tied tight and as long as you don't use at all for the next couple of weeks I don't see why it wouldn't." He took a piece of cloth and poured water on it. "Clean your arm wrist and hand off with that. Once we put it on we can't take it off so it has time to heal properly."

Melissa nodded and began cleaning off her arm. Lex laid another larger cloth out of his leg then picked up the stick and held it up to Melissa arm to be sure it would be long enough but not so long it would go past her elbow and stab her. He smiled contently and nodded to his self. He couldn't stop thinking about Daley but at least helping Melissa helped his mind from racing around forming deranged images in his head. The stick was about a centimeter thick and straight so it would provide proper support and it wouldn't break under pressure. She wrapped some of the cloth around the stick so it wouldn't be too uncomfortable then he folded the top of the cloth and the bottom of it down to the size of the stick. Once he was finished he picked it up and laid it on Melissa's lap. She laid arm on it with her wrist resting against the stick. She winced a little and tensed up a bit but she relaxed a few moments later.

She put her fingers over the top of the cloth. Lex grabbed the camp knife and held the clot up so he wouldn't stab anyone and cut a hole for her thumb. Once he was done he carefully and tightly wrapped her arm with the cloth then tied some thin vines he had braided around her the bottom and the top around her fingers where the cushion was from where he folded the cloth around the stick. He tied on in between the two to be sure it was stay then took a step back.

"Perfect." Lex said looking down at her arm.

"This is great Lex, Thanks." Melissa took he watch out of her pocket with her good arm and looked at the time. "It's been a half hour we should prepare for the others to get here."

Everyone nodded and stood up trying to do something productive but no one but Melissa knew how bad it was so no one else really knew what to prepare for. They all made their selves useful and that was the best they could do considering the circumstances.


	10. Chapter 10: Aftermath, Part one

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the characters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun._

**A/N:**_ This chapter was super long, longer than I thought it would be, so I broke the song and the story up into two parts. I'll be posting the second part in a little while, so if you would rather wait till then it shouldn't take anymore than an hour or so depending if I have to go do something. Let me know what you think of this half as well as the second half when I post it. Review help me better my writing, and constructive criticism is welcome just don't be too mean about it. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

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_

**Chapter ten: Aftermath- Part one**

**Avril Lavigne- Keep holding on**

Melissa, Lex, and Eric waited impatiently by the fire pit. They'd done everything they could think of that would help Taylor and the others, they even moved the tent closer to the fire pit and cleared it out so they would have room to move around. It'd been over an hour since they split up in the forest and they were all beginning to worry even Eric. A million things were going through all of their mines none of which were good for the others or for them. Lex had it the worse out of the three. It wasn't just a close friend or even someone as close as family, it was his family. The only family he had on the island, the older kids didn't have any family there but they were also older and could count on each other, Lex depended on them but having Daley there made it easier for him to deal with everything that happened. She was his rock, the person he trusted completely and depended on to be strong for him when he couldn't or he felt like his emotions were going to drive him insane.

He sat on the sand by the fire braiding vines together then burning them off in the fire. It was all he could do to keep his own mind from driving him insane. He bent and twisted them to make sure they were flexible enough to tie around an arm or a leg, and that they didn't splinter or break under pressure. He made different lengths and sizes to be sure they had one to fit at least most of their injuries then laid them on the sand beside him. His mind was racing so fast he could barley keep up with it. It was bouncing from the vines to the others to everything that happened the last couple of days to the worst possibilities on why the others hadn't returned back to camp yet. He tried to slow down and pay attention to what he was doing but even that wasn't helping much.

Melissa faintly smiled at him. She couldn't believe how calm and collected he seemed. She knew he must be going crazy inside but he hid it from them well. She wanted to do or say something that might help him feel better or ease his mind a bit but right now the only thing that would help him was to see his sister walk through the tree line. She looked at her watch for the third time in the last five minutes. She couldn't stand sitting around and waiting for them to return. She felt like she was being torn into two directions, half of her was telling her to go find the others and the other half was telling her she should stay at camp and wait for them to come back. She bounced her legs slightly while she wringed her hands. Eric stared at her for a moment wondering if he should try to calm her down or just leave her alone.

Most of the time on this island it was best to leave people alone especially in a time like this but this was Melissa. She was always needed someone to vent to wither she was angry, sad, worried, or scared but was there really anything he could do or say to help her. Four of their friends were somewhere out in the middle of the jungle that seemed to hate them more then their worst enemies back at home, one of them was severally hurt, the other no one knew how hurt she was and Jackson and Nathan were carrying Taylor down the steepest hill on the face of the planet after a huge storm which made it almost impossible. There was nothing he could say that would make all them seem alright. It wasn't alright not by a long shot. He was even worried about Jackson, he couldn't believe he acted out as bad as he did. There was better ways at handling the situation and his way was no where close. He sighed and put his hand on Melissa's shoulder.

"If they don't come back in the next half hour we'll go find them but we have to give them time. They are carrying Taylor…" He said giving her a half smile.

Melissa gave him a faint smile and nodded. "Thanks Eric."

_You're not alone  
Together we stand  
I'll be by your side, you know I'll take your hand  
When it gets cold  
And it feels like the end  
There's no place to go  
You know I won't give in  
No I won't give in_

Jackson, Daley, and Nathan made their way down the hill with Taylor in tow. Nathan was carrying Taylor while Daley and Jackson walked on each side of him to be sure one of them could catch him if he began to fall. They were walking a lot slower then they liked but they could take any chances. Taylor's breathing became worse since they left the shelter on top of the hill. They sounded shallow and she was wheezing so bad that Nathan could feel it on his arm. She hadn't woken up or even made a sound other than the wheezing and a cough here and there. Her skin was getting colder despite the rising heat and her lips were beginning to get a slight blue tent to them. Without a doubt she was getting worse and if they didn't hurry and get her back to camp she was going to get a lot worse. Nathan's arms were beginning to cramp and felt like they were going to give out on him. His legs felt like there was a thousand pound weight on each shoe and he felt like he couldn't catch his breath. He stopped and looked at Jackson.

"Your going to have to take over, I'm about to drop her." Nathan said feeling his hands slipping.

"Alright." Jackson looked around for a relatively dry spot. "Bring her over here…" He said walking over to a tree.

Nathan followed and sat her down under the tree. "Why are we putting her down?"

"I was wondering the same thing." Daley added. "We have to get her back to camp." She said feeling more and more anxious.

"Yeah but at the rate were going she is going to need a lot more help than we can give her if we don't do something now." Jackson explained.

"What are we suppose to do all the way up here?" Daley asked holding out her hands towards the trees around her to help make her point.

"Get her dressed." Jackson said looking at Nathan and Daley who both looked clueless.

Jackson sighed and took off his t-shirt, belt, and blue jeans. He still had a pair of swimming shorts under them from the day before. Daley and Nathan both finally got it and knelt down on either side of her. Jackson carefully slipped the t-shirt over her arms and pushed it up to her shoulders. Nathan and Daley gently leaned her forward. Daley kept her hand under her chin to be sure they didn't break her neck or suffocate her. Jackson slipped the t-shirt over her head then grabbed the hoody from Daley's pack and slipped it on her before Nathan and Daley gently put her back against the tree. Jackson slipped the blue jeans onto her legs. Once he got them as far up as he could Nathan and Daley both lifted her up slightly so he could pull them up the rest of the way. Jackson put the belt through the belt hoops skipping every other one for speed.

Once he got it tight enough to be sure that they wouldn't fall off of her. Daley stood up and moved over but stayed close enough that she could support Taylor's head when they lifted her. Jackson knelt down beside her and put his arms under her back and legs. Nathan adjusted Taylor's arm so that it was around his neck and Daley reached around them with one of her hands and put in behind her head. Nathan put his hands under her and looked around at the others.

"Ok on my count one…two…three!" Nathan said

On three Nathan and Jackson both lifted Taylor up and Daley kept a hold of her head. Once Jackson had her in his arms Daley gently laid her head on Jackson's shoulder and put the hood over her head. Jackson looked down the hill then back at Daley.

"Were not that far from camp, run there and make sure everything is ready for when we get there."

"But I need to be here to help you two." Daley protested.

"Me and Nathan can handle it from here. We'll be fine just go please?" Jackson said calmly but his expression was unreadable as usual.

Daley slowly nodded and headed back to camp running as fast as she could without falling down and getting hurt her self. Jackson began walking down the hill at a steady pace keeping a tight grip on Taylor's knees and waist. Nathan walked in front of him slightly kicking anything out of the way that could cause him to trip and what he couldn't move he warned him about. Jackson dug his feet into the ground to keep his self from slipping and falling. It made it harder to walk but a lot safer for him and Taylor. His legs and arms hurt but he refused to stop again. The more time they spent resting the less time they had to help Taylor.

"It's going to be ok Tay, we're not giving up." He whispered to Taylor hoping that apart of her could hear him.

_Keep holding on  
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through  
Just stay strong  
'Cause you know I'm here for you, I'm here for you  
There's nothing you could say  
Nothing you could do  
There's no other way when it comes to the truth  
So keep holding on  
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through_

Daley stumbled into camp; she about fell but she was able to catch her balance. She quickly looked around the fire pit and narrowed her eyes at all the changes that had been made since she was last here. She wasn't sure wither they happened before or after the storm but right now that wasn't important. Lex's eye's widened when he seen his big sister standing at the tree line. He quickly stood up and rushed over to her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist; Daley faintly smiled and put both of her hands on his back. Eric and Melissa both spun around quickly and stood up and rushed towards her in one swift motion.

"Where are the others? Are they alright? Is Taylor alright? Are they on their way?" Both Eric and Melissa asked rapidly.

Daley couldn't understand what either of them was saying because they were both talking at the same time and talking so fast that not even a speed talker could keep up with them. She finally got frustrated with trying to keep up with them so she held her hand up. They both stopped talking abruptly. Daley took a deep breathe and looked at both of them, she noticed that Melissa's arm and her hand on the other arm was wrapped up but knew she could ask her about it later when one of them wasn't sick or hurt. When she was sure they were going to ask anymore questions at insane rates she decided to explain.

"Listen, Nathan and Jackson are on their way with Taylor, she's really bad off so we're going to need everything we have to help her. I got here in about ten minutes so they'll be here in about twenty. We have to be ready by then." Daley explained.

"We cleared out the tent; the only thing left in there is a sleeping bag, the first aid kit, and a few bottles of water." Melissa explained. "And Lex has come up with alternate ways of first aid using things we have and things from the jungle. See!" Melissa said carefully lifting her arm.

Daley gave her brother a faint smile. "Good job Lex." She said rubbing his back. "Do you think you can make one for Taylor's ankle, we're positive it's broken or at least a really bad sprain."

Lex nodded. "Sure." He held on to Daley not wanting to let her go but after a few moments he let go and took a couple steps back.

"Melissa, can you crush some aspirin up in a coconut shell and put some water in it so we can give it to Taylor when she gets here? And Eric…"

"I know get more water…" Eric interrupted.

"Only two jugs then I need you to boil it and put it into some bottles don't worry about filtering it we won't be drinking it." Daley got in her pack and pulled out the four empty bottles and handed them to him. "We can use it to help get Taylor's temperature back to normal. Just make sure you put them all in a beach towel and take them down to the beach to cool them off a bit so we don't burn her but not to much we need as much heat as we can get."

Eric nodded. "No problem."

Melissa nodded and looked over at Daley. "Sure."

"Good, I'm going to get everything we need out of the first aid kit so we can get to it quickly."

Daley walked into the tent and began digging through the first aid kit. Melissa followed her in but once she got the aspirin she went back outside. Daley frantically got everything they could possibly need out of the first aid kit and put it all within reach. She made sure there was nothing in the way from the door way to the sleeping bag and that the sleeping back was open so that once they got through doing everything they could they could cover her up. Once she was done she walked back outside to wait for the others and maybe help Eric, Melissa or Lex. Melissa and Eric both seemed to have everything covered so Daley walked over to Lex. She sat down on the log beside him and looked down at everything he had laid out in the sand. He had sticks both short and long all of them some what thick. Some twine, long thin straps of cloth and Jackson's knife. She wasn't sure how it was all going to come together but she learned a long time ago to never doubt her brother or what he was capable of.

_So far away  
I wish you were here  
Before it's too late, this could all disappear  
Before the doors close  
And it comes to an end  
With you by my side I will fight and defend  
I'll fight and defend  
Yeah, yeah_

Jackson and Nathan were making better progress then they had all day. They were already close enough to camp to hear everyone's voices. They struggled through the last bit of roots, rocks, bushes and trees before they both carefully made their way through the tree line and into camp. Everyone seemed to be working on something even Eric was busy carrying water to the fire pit until he noticed them standing there. He dropped the jugs on the ground and ran towards them. Daley quickly noticed them too and stood up. Melissa and Lex both turned to look at them and stood up as well. Daley rushed towards the tent.

"In here!" She called back as she walked through the tent flap.

Nathan rushed over and held the flap open long enough for Jackson to get inside then he followed in behind him. Daley was standing at the far corner of the tent ready to help them lay her down. Nathan rushed over beside her while Jackson stood right across from them. Nathan put his arms on Jackson's and grabbed them tightly to support Taylor while they laid her down. Daley grabbed her head and they slowly and carefully laid her down on the sleeping bag. Melissa, Eric and Lex were all standing in the doorway watching them. They carefully stripped Taylor back down to her blue jean shorts and her bikini top. Daley soaked a clean bandanna and began to carefully clean off the dirt on her skin to be sure there weren't any cuts or scrapes hiding behind them and cleaning the ones she could see.

"Here…" Melissa said holding out the coconut with the aspirin in it.

Jackson took it. "Thanks…" He said turning back to Taylor.

Lex rushed over beside his sister and unscrewed on of the pop-cap lids from the bottle and handed it to Jackson. "You can use this as a dropper so you won't give her too much that she chokes."

"Will she even be able to swallow?" Jackson asked looking up at Lex.

Lex shrugged. "Depends, people swallow spit the time when their sleeping. If she's conscious enough she'll swallow."

"And if she's not?" Jackson asked.

"That's why we're using the lid. Just keep her head level and watch her throat you should be able to see if she swallows or not and don't give her too much, just enough to let her brain know that she needs to swallow." Lex explained.

"And how much is that?" He asked getting a little annoyed.

"About half a tea spoon." Lex said walking back over to Melissa to get out of their way.

He turned around and put his back to her legs. Melissa put her good hand on his shoulder hoping it would help in some way. They all watched closely at what everyone was doing. Daley was cleaning, and Nathan was putting antibiotic ointment on them, and bandaging up the worse ones hoping that would be enough. Jackson carefully put the top of the lid in Taylor's mouth and poured a little bit into the cap. After a few seconds she coughed but then swallowed. Melissa, Eric, and Lex all cheered happily but Nathan, Jackson, and Daley just continued to work. Little by little, Jackson gave her all the medicine then gave her some water to help get the taste out and to help hydrate her. _If she was conscious enough to swallow she's conscious enough to taste. _He thought.

_Keep holding on  
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through  
Just stay strong  
'Cause you know I'm here for you, I'm here for you  
There's nothing you could say  
Nothing you could do  
There's no other way when it comes to the truth  
So keep holding on  
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through

* * *

_

**TBC**


	11. Chapter 11: Aftermath, Part two

**Title:** _Chaos amongst them._

**Rating: **_T for now but that may change as they story progresses. _

**Summary:** _The survivors of flight 29 DWN have survived storms, sicknesses, injuries and each other. But when tempers run high, and the stress of it all becomes too much for the survivors to handle they begin falling apart one by one. Will they be able to band together before disaster strikes or will they be too late to save one of their own?_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the characters, the show, or any of the songs and artist that I choose to use. This is just for fun. _

**A/N:**_ This is the final chapter yay! I finally finished it. I may write a sequel I'm not sure thought, it all depends if I can come up with a good story line. Let me know what you think and if you think this ending was good and if the song fit it. It took me forever to think of it and think of the right way to write it. Thanks for all the great reviews; I enjoyed getting them so much! It's why I tried my best to update it as often as possible. Thanks for reading.

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_

**Chapter Eleven: Aftermath, Part two**

**Avril Lavigne- Keep holding on. **

Eric went rushed outside to check to see if the water was boiling yet. Melissa wanted to stay but she knew if she did Lex would too and no matter how much she wanted to watch what was going on she didn't want Lex to have to watch. She patted him on his shoulder and looked down at him. He looked up at her questioningly.

"Let's go outside and find a way to make a splint for her ankle, and let them take care of her." She said softly glancing back up at them.

Lex reluctantly nodded and walked outside with her. When they did they seen Eric carefully but quickly funneling water all the empty bottles they had. Once he got the lids on he tossed them on a beach towel. He had a shirt wrapped around the hand that he was holding the bottles with to make sure he didn't burn his self. He had three so far and had five more bottles to go.

"Can you help me make her splint? I promise you'll only need one hand." Lex said looking up at her.

"Let me go help Eric and after that I'll come help you alright?" Melissa said giving him a faint smile.

He slowly nodded. "Alright."

He walked over to his supplies while Melissa rushed over to help Eric. He had a main plan on how he was going to make it but wasn't sure if it would work. He sat down in the sand and picked out one of the middle sized sticks and began drilling holes in the side with Jackson's pocket knife. Once he had done both middle sized pieces and was sure the holes were big enough he picked up the short pieces and placed on in the hole to be sure it would fit. He smiled excitedly when it did and began latching sticks together with twine in the shape of an L. He made sure that the long stick was long enough to go up to at least her knee so there would be enough support. He took two long thin strips of cloth and tied of them to one side of the brace. One near the top, and one in the middle. He rushed over to the metal box Eric found and got the needle and thread out before rushing back. He was surprised the needle hadn't gotten lost yet, of course Daley was the only on who used it and she was really careful not to loose anything.

He got a long, thick cloth and began sewing one side to the upper side of the brace all the way down to where her toes would begin forming a net around the brace…or at least that was if he guessed the size of her foot right. He smiled happily down at it; now all he had to do was measure the size of Taylor's leg and foot, saw the smaller sticks down to the right size and tie and sew the pieces together. He narrowed his eyes at it for a moment. Something was missing…his eyes quickly widened. He grabbed four strips of cloth. Two of them he tied along the long part of the brace on top of the one already tired so that it would hold her leg in the brace. Then he sewed on along the edge of where her ankle would be and a semi thick one across where her foot would be. Now all he needed was Taylor to get healthy enough to put it on her.

Eric and Melissa rushed back up from the beach and into the tent carrying the beach towel full of hot bottles of water. Once they were inside they seen Jackson covering her up with the sleeping bag. They rushed over and laid the beach towel out. Daley's eyes widened.

"Good job you guys!" She said looking at Melissa and Eric before she looked at Jackson. "We need to put those in her sleeping back before we zip it up that way it will make more heat faster. We can't put them right up against here but being in there should be good enough."

Jackson shrugged as if he was saying why not before he began laying the bottles of water around the edges and bottom of her sleeping bags. They were hot enough that it burned his hand but not enough to cause a blister. He rolled up shirts and put them along the bottles to keep them from rolling. He lined the edge the zipped but made sure the bottles were an inch from the edge and had shirts on both sides. He zipped it up and sat back.

"What now?" Melissa asked looking around at everyone.

"We wait, pray and hope…we've done all we can." She said sadly before looking down at Taylor.

Everyone but Lex sat in the tent staring at Taylor hoping for moment, or a sound anything that would show improvement but there was nothing. After thirty minutes Daley sighed and looked around at everyone. They needed to gather food, water, and more fire wood but she hated the thought of leaving Taylor. She felt responsible for her being this way in so many ways. First she yelled at her saying the most horrible things to her, second she tried to force her to do something she didn't want to forcing her to run away to hide in the woods which caused Eric's and Jackson's fight, and Third she got her self knocked out forcing Taylor to set up a shelter and pulling her inside all by her self with a possibly broken ankle and covered with cuts, scrapes and bruises. All of this was her fault and if something unthinkable happens then she wouldn't be able to live with her self. All of this because a picture, the picture was important but not important enough to cause all this.

_Hear me when I say, when I say I believe  
Nothing's gonna change, nothing's gonna change destiny  
Whatever's meant to be will work out perfectly  
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah_

_La da da da  
La da da da  
La da da da da da da da da_

Daley sighed and looked around at everyone but before she could say anything to them Lex rushed in with his arms full. Everyone looked at him clueless to what all the stuff was or what it was for but Lex didn't seem to notice. He laid everything out in a line and looked around at everyone. He narrowed his eyes when he seen everyone staring at him the way they usually did when they had no clue what something he made was. He sighed and looked down at everything on the tent floor. It looked obvious to him but of course he made it. He looked around at everyone and smiled.

"It's a splint for Taylor's ankle. Do we have an ace bandage?" He asked looking at Daley.

"Here…" Jackson said taking off the one on his leg.

"No Jackson, you need it." Lex said looking around at everyone else.

"No Lex, I'm fine. The only reason I had to wear it was for the pressure to stop the bleeding and to keep the gauze on it when I walked. Neither of which I have to worry about now." He said handing him the bandage.

Lex frowned but then took it. He unzipped the bottom of the sleeping bag enough to where he could pull it up to her knee. He folded it over making sure the rest of her stayed covered up. He carefully moved the bottles of water out of the sleeping back and put them in the corner of the tent.

"Wait Lex…" Daley said looking around at everyone. "We need to gather some food, water and fire wood but we can't leave Taylor alone. Someone needs to be here to check her temperature, make sure her air ways are clear, and that the bottles of water stay hot to give her more heat. So we watch over her in shifts. Since Melissa is one hand short she'll have to be with someone as well to help."

"I'll get the water; pour it into the bottles and everything while Melissa watches over the fire." Nathan offered.

Daley nodded. "Ok."

"I'll gather fire wood." Eric said raising his hand.

_Eric volunteering to work, that's a new one. _"Alright." Daley said.

"And I'll gather some food if I can find any." Jackson said standing up.

"And I'll watch over Taylor and help Lex get the splint on her." She said looking at the complicated contraption her brother came up with. "Nobody go to far from camp just in case something does happen…Wait…Nathan and Jackson carried Taylor all the way down that hill, you two should have easy jobs at least until you can get some rest."

"We'll be fine Daley." Jackson said before he picked up a clean t-shirt and a clean pair of pants. "If I can't find any fruit I'll try fishing." He said walking outside not giving Daley any chances to argue. She looked up and Nathan.

He gave her a faint smile. "Jackson's right, we'll be fine…" He said following him out.

Soon Lex and Daley were the only two left in the tent. Daley stood up and walked over to Lex and sat down beside him. She looked around at everything he had placed neatly in front of him then looked over at him. She was confused on how it was going to go together and how it was going to work.

"So how exactly is this going to work?" She asked shyly feeling a little dumb for having to ask her little brother that question.

"Well we'll take the cloth…"

"Wait…" Daley interrupted. "Where did all this cloth come from?"

"I cut up some of my shirts, don't get mad, I only cut up three, I still have seven and I only really need four." He said looking over at his sister. "So we take this long piece of cloth that I sewed together and wrap her leg up from her knees down to her toes, so that it won't be uncomfortable for her to wear this thing for up to eight weeks, then we wrap the ace bandage around her ankle and a couple inches above it to give it a little bit more support."

"Alright." Daley said interrupting him again. "Let's do that then you can explain the rest."

"Ok." Lex said nodding.

They carefully adjusted her ankle so that it was straight then they slowly put the first piece of cloth on and then the ace bandage. Lex grabbed one half of the stick with all the cloth on it and put it under her foot. The longer stick came down an inch below her knee. Lex slightly smiled and nodded. _This is actually going to work. _He thought as he explained to Daley that they needed to sew the biggest piece of clothe to the other half and make sure it would be tight around her ankle. Once the was finished he cut the slightly thinner short sticks and put them under her foot in the holes he drilled to keep her foot from falling through. One on her hill, and one on the ball of her foot. He tied them to the support stick on each side with twine for extra support. The rest was jut tying and sewing the rest of the cloth tightly around her leg and tying three veins around her leg and one around her foot for some extra support and to make sure it was around her leg tight so he foot or leg couldn't move.

Daley smiled at Lex as she looked over the splint. "This is really good Lex."

"Thanks, I'm going to help Melissa, do you mind?" Lex asked looking over at her.

"No go ahead." She said zipping Taylor's sleeping back up and moving up by her head.

She checked her pulsed, breathing, air ways and temperature. Everything was better than what it was but not where it was suppose to be. _At least it's some sign of improvement. _She thought as she crossed her legs in front of her. She felt tears forming in her eyes and before she could stop them a slow steady stream of tears was falling down her cheeks. She brushed Taylor's hair from her face.

"Come on Taylor, you can fight through this. I know you can you just have to try and don't give up. We're all here trying to help you fight this but we don't know what else to do. I'm sorry I yelled at you, and for all those mean things I said. I didn't mean any of it." A small sob escaped her lips. "We're all here waiting for you to wake up. None of us are giving up on you. We know how strong you are Taylor and this…may be hard but you have us and we'll help anyway we can…just please fight…" Daley broke down into sobs. She whipped the tears from her cheeks but more just replaced them. _God please help her fight this. _

_Keep holding on  
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through  
Just stay strong  
'Cause you know I'm here for you, I'm here for you  
There's nothing you could say  
Nothing you could do  
There's no other way when it comes to the truth  
So keep holding on  
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through_

Jackson came up from the beach carrying the fishing line with four good sized fish hanging from the hooks. He didn't find much fruit but at least he caught some fish. He laid them down on one of the coolers and got a bottle of water from the bin. He took a long drink from it before sitting down beside Melissa. She didn't even seem to notice that he was there. She mindlessly poked the fire with a stick staring into the flames. He pushed the top back down on his water and sat it down on the sand.

"Hey…" He said softly.

Melissa quickly turned her head towards him. "Oh hey…" She said without her normal welcoming smile.

"Have you heard anything about Taylor?"

"No, Nathan took some hot water in their about thirty minutes ago and he said that she is doing a little better but she hasn't shown any sign she was waking up…" She said looking back down at the fire. "Do you think she's going to be ok?" She asked scared that he would say no.

Jackson looked at the fire. "Yeah, she'll be fine. She wouldn't be alive if she wasn't a fighter. She's not going to give up now…" Jackson said with a faint smile.

Daley walked out of the tent; her eyes were still red with tears. She seen the fish piled on the cooler and looked over at Jackson and Melissa. She looked around for Lex and seen that he was sitting over by the tree line braiding veins. She sighed and walked towards Melissa and Jackson.

"Jackson, can you take over for a while?" Daley asked softly.

Jackson looked up at her and nodded. "Sure…" He gave Melissa a slight smile and put his hand on her knee. "Don't worry Mel, she'll be ok."

Melissa slowly nodded. "I can't help but to worry."

Jackson nodded. "I know." He said before standing up.

He stepped around Daley and walked inside the tent. Everyone was doing their jobs, and helping with other jobs when they were done. Nathan gathered enough water and filled enough bottles to keep Taylor warm and for them to have enough to drink for three days. He also brought two extra jugs up so if Taylor needed more water all they had to do was boil it. After he checked on Taylor he left to go help Eric. The sun was beginning to set and Taylor was still showing no sign that she was going to wake up. She hadn't even thought about how everyone was going to sleep without hurting Taylor or how they were going to work out schedules for who stayed up to look over her. She shook her head. _If need be we will all sleep outside, not that any of us will be able to sleep. _

Jackson sat in the corner of the tent staring at Taylor for any sign of movement. He sighed and laid his chin on his knees. He couldn't stand sitting around waiting for something to happen but what other choice did they have. Jackson looked at his watch; it'd been five hours since they gave her the aspirin and even then it was only one pill. He grabbed the coconut shell and poured some wanted in it then got the aspirin he waited until it had dissolved completely before he grabbed the cap he use earlier. He done everything just as he did before but this time he got a different reaction. Taylor began coughing and her eyes opened. She spit what little bit he poured in her mouth and looked around when she seen Jackson she stared at him for a moment. Her eyes were slowly closing but then she would quickly open them again.

_Keep holding on  
Keep holding on_

"What are you doing trying to poison me or something?" She asked her voice was weak and barley above a whisper. She pulled her hand out of the sleeping bag and whipped her mouth of. "Or suffocate me…what's on my foot?"

Jackson laughed and shook his head. "You missed a lot while you were out, how do you feel?"

She shrugged. "Weak, nauseous, dizzy, sick…my whole body hurts, my ankle is killing me but I'll live…How is Daley doing?"

Jackson smiled. "She's fine, she's right outside…you done really good Tay, and you probably saved her life and yours." He said grabbing her hand and giving it a slight squeeze.

"Since when do you call me Tay?" She said

Jackson smiled and shrugged. Taylor faintly smiled and grabbed a bottle of water. Jackson helped her hold her head up so she could take a drink. Once she was done he laid her back down on the pillow.

"Is she still mad at me?" Taylor asked skittishly

Jackson shook his head. "I don't think she was mad at you in the first place. Can you stay up long enough for me to go get everyone?"

Taylor slowly nodded. "Yeah…"

Jackson smiled. "Alright."

He let go of her hand and stood up. He walked outside and looked around at everyone. They were all sitting around the camp fire accept for Daley who was still cleaning and preparing the fish. He took a couple steps towards the fire pit.

"Hey everyone, Taylor's awake!" He said.

Everyone's head turned towards with them all of them with a bright smile on their face. They all stood up and rushed towards the tent but once they got there they slowly climbed in one by one to see her. Jackson was the last to walk in. He stood in the corner while everyone surrounded her. He was shocked that everyone didn't start asking a million questions but right now they were all probably just happy to see that she was alive and awake. Daley was sitting on the far side of her. Daley smiled at her and put her hand on her wrist.

"I'm sorry Taylor, for everything I did and said to you the other day. You didn't deserve it and none of it is true." Daley said as tears began to fall down her cheek once again.

Taylor smiled and reached into her pocket with her other hand and slowly pulled it out. She laid her arm across her chest and turned her hand over. Daley looked down at her hand, her mouth dropped when she seen her family portrait in her hand.

"I found it the morning I left…it somehow got in my sleeping bag. I was too scared to give it to you because I thought you might think that I took it on purpose." Taylor said dozing off back to sleep. She woke her self back up and faintly smiled at her.

"Thank you Taylor, for everything." Daley said smiling through her tears.

"You would have done the same thing for me…actually all of you done way better…you guys saved my life. Thank you, I love you guys." She said slowly.

Finally the weakness won her over and she slowly fell asleep. One by one they all replied.

"I love you too."

_There's nothing you could say  
Nothing you could do  
There's no other way when it comes to the truth  
So keep holding on  
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through_

**The End**


End file.
